Wild World
by HowdyU
Summary: Salvation from chaos or ashes and dust from the whole of creation? Which will Naruto choose when the world is his playground? He should be careful though - he isn't the only one playing the game.
1. Behind Blue Eyes

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Story Name: **_Wild World_ by Cat Stevens

**A/N:** Here's a story idea I came up with in my spare time. It's a very simple premise, done about a million times before, but not quite this way so far as I know. I don't expect to spend much time on this project, and if I do it won't be for quite some time, so _Houses of the Holy_ enthusiasts shouldn't be concerned about this getting in the way of your updates.

I haven't given much thought to what I might want to do with this story yet, so I'm going to keep things vague at this point.

**Chapter Name:** _Behind Blue Eyes_ by The Who

* * *

"Naruto!"

Something within him told him to stop – wanted him to - but he crushed that feeling quickly.

Mizuki was going to kill him if he stopped.

Uzumaki Naruto jumped into the trees in the hopes of escaping his one-time instructor - the massive Scroll of Forbidden Seals strapped tightly across his back.

Mizuki wanted the scroll and Naruto was not about to hand it over to the traitorous chuunin.

Naruto stopped just out of eyesight of the clearing where the fair-haired man had ambushed him.

He needed time to think – to sort things out. Mizuki had said that he was the Kyuubi, hadn't he?

Panic began to well up from deep within the young boy. Was it true?

Maybe.

Naruto had always known that he was different.

Other children had families – a loving mother and father and maybe even sisters and brothers.

Naruto had no one aside from the old Hokage and Iruka-sensei. But hadn't the Kyuubi killed Iruka's parents? Could Iruka's kindness all have been a lie? Could the old man's?

Other children had friends – people to play with, share with, and learn with.

Naruto had an audience. When he goofed off he could draw a crowd, sure, but even his occasional partners in crime – Kiba, Chouji, and Shikamaru – didn't make a point of spending time with him outside of classes. In fact, if he were being honest with himself, he'd say that they avoided him nearly as much as everyone else.

Other children were treated with kindness and leniency.

Naruto was treated with hostility and unfriendly glares – as if he were something ugly and unpleasant that the people of Konoha were forced to tolerate.

He realized with a dawning horror that Mizuki's insinuation made some sort of sick sense.

But he didn't feel evil. He hadn't harmed anyone as far as he could recall. The most he had ever done was pull a few harmless pranks to release some stress and draw a bit of attention. Being chased and scolded was better than being shunned and ignored, after all.

He couldn't be an evil demon, he just couldn't!

Naruto was disturbed from his reflections by the sound of a vicious chuckle carrying through the crisp, cool, evening air.

"Sorry Iruka, but Naruto isn't the type to have a change of heart. He plans to use that scroll to get revenge on the village."

It was Mizuki. Naruto recalled with a shudder why he had been so reluctant to run away. Iruka was still back there with that traitor, and he was hurt!

Mizuki kept speaking, his voice taking on a bored, superior quality that he sometimes used when he would lecture their academy class. "You saw those eyes earlier… those were the eyes of a demon."

Naruto wanted desperately to cover his ears. He couldn't bear to hear Iruka-sensei agree with the traitor. He couldn't survive being betrayed like that by someone he looked to as a precious person – a big brother of sorts.

But another part of him had to listen. He had to find out what was true and what was simply an illusion created for the benefit of tricking the monster Kyuubi.

A sickening squelch accompanied by a pained gasp rang through the night air. Oh God, hadn't Iruka still had that giant shuriken stuck in him?

Naruto desperately wanted to go back and help his sensei, but a part of him was still terrified of being wrong about Iruka's sincerity. He silently leapt from his hiding spot against the trunk of a large tree back towards the clearing, finding a perch from which he had a clear view of the two men through the thick foliage.

Iruka looked like a bloody mess as he climbed to his knees with his back still towards Mizuki - the multiple stab wounds from kunai and the giant shuriken only impeding him slightly. In his hand he held the giant shuriken that he had unceremoniously ripped from his back only moments before.

The tanned chuunin spoke in a low tone that Naruto had never heard him utter before. Iruka's anger was palpable as he practically snarled at his former assistant. "Naruto… isn't like that!"

Naruto eyes widened at Iruka's reply. He did truly care! But what did that mean about the Kyuubi? He couldn't imagine that Iruka would be so forgiving if Naruto had in fact killed his parents. Was there something more to it?

All Naruto knew was that right here, right now, Iruka had become his most precious person.

* * *

The smug grin fell off of Mizuki's face at Iruka's reply. "Well that hardly matters. I'll kill Naruto and take the scroll." His countenance shifted slowly into a wicked sneer. "But first I think I'll take care of you. I had hoped it wouldn't turn out this way, Iruka. I always respected you, even if you did pal around with that monster."

Mizuki reached behind him and brought his second giant shuriken to bear even as Iruka threw the first that he had recovered from his back at the traitorous ninja. Unfortunately Iruka's throw went horribly wide on account of the multitude of kunai still imbedded in his limbs and torso. He gasped in pain and fell to the ground, completely incapable of defending himself against Mizuki's charge.

Instead of finishing the injured man off quickly, Mizuki delivered a swift kick to Iruka's side knocking him completely to the ground before dropping a knee heavily onto his injured back.

Iruka gasped in pain once again as Mizuki leaned down and, with his free hand, began to grind the helpless ninja's face into the dry earth.

Iruka felt the point of Mizuki's shuriken dig lightly into the back of his unprotected neck. It was finally over.

"This is the end, demon lover!"

He closed his eyes and waited for death to claim him.

* * *

Naruto watched in horror as Iruka collapsed to the ground, his thrown shuriken completely ignored by Mizuki as he ran the injured man down.

He had to help!

Naruto leapt from his hiding spot and began dashing through the trees even as Mizuki settled forcefully on top of Iruka and moved the shuriken's point to his neck.

Naruto was halfway there.

Mizuki spoke, but the frantic boy couldn't pick out the words. _No!_

He was almost at the edge of the clearing. _Faster! I need to be faster! I can't let him die!_

The fair-haired man's lips tightened into a thin line and his eyes hardened as he readied himself to end his former colleague's life. _Not Iruka-sensei!_

Naruto wasn't going to make it. _No! Please no!_

_I can't lose him! He's all I have! Please no! No!_

_NO!_

_

* * *

  
_

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, sat in his office poring intently over his seeing stone.

He needed to find Naruto before any of the overzealous ninja got their hands on him.

More importantly, he needed to find Naruto before he managed to disrupt the Kyuubi's seal. It was a one in a million chance of course, but the repercussions of releasing the Kyuubi once again were too dire to contemplate.

The old man had been properly confused when Naruto had accosted him earlier that evening in the tower. He certainly hadn't expected to be knocked out by an obscene original jutsu the boy had developed. He also hadn't expected the boy to pilfer the village's most valuable scroll and whisk it away into the night.

The entire ordeal was quite alarming, to say the least.

He was understandably eager to find Naruto and discover the reasons for his illicit actions, and gave a short sigh of relief when he finally spotted the golden-blond hair unique to the boy's family just outside the village proper with scroll in tow.

His relief was short lived as he took in the occupants of the clearing.

Sarutobi Hiruzen leapt to his feet and was gone from his office faster than the eye could see. There was no time to recall his searching ninjas or sortie the ANBU. This could not wait, and he'd rather deal with the situation without involving others.

* * *

Naruto blinked his eyes in confusion.

Then he closed them. He could feel a headache coming on. It was going to be a whopper too.

What happened?

That's right. Iruka-sensei had been in trouble. Mizuki, the bastard, had been trying to kill him.

Why was that again?

There was a bonus graduation exam. Take the scroll. Learn a jutsu. That's right! The forbidden scroll! The Mass Shadow Clone technique!

Then he found Iruka.

No, that wasn't right. Iruka found him.

Mizuki attacked them with kunai. Iruka protected him.

A secret.

The Kyuubi!

He was the Kyuubi?

Maybe… probably not. Iruka didn't hate him.

Iruka didn't hate him!

Mizuki was going to kill him. He was going to kill Iruka first.

Naruto's eyes snapped open.

Where was Iruka?

Where was _he_?

Naruto looked up to find himself on his hands and knees on the cool ground. He squinted his eyes painfully – the headache was getting worse.

Regaining his composure, Naruto's gaze moved to the still body lying before him.

Well, corpse, really.

It was Mizuki, the bastard.

Naruto looked on as well as he could with the terrible throbbing building in his head.

It wasn't a pretty sight. The traitor's eyes had rolled up into the back of his head, leaving only the whites visible. Blood leaked slowly from the man's ears, mouth, and nose. Despite that, Naruto had no idea what could have killed him.

But mostly he just wasn't in the mood to ponder it. The painful throbbing in his head had kept building and he was finding it difficult to form a coherent thought at all. It was as if someone were tightening a vice around his forehead a bit at a time. Even worse, there was an angry pressure building just behind his eyes that made them feel as though they were readying themselves to pop right out of his head.

He slowly sat back onto his bottom while wiping his dirty hands off on his pants. Having confirmed that there was only a bit of dirt and grime on them, he pressed the heels of his palms against his eyes to counter the pressure behind them.

It worked, at least a bit. The pain was now reduced to a horrible aching throb.

Naruto was not particularly happy.

"Naruto?" It was Iruka-sensei.

Now Naruto felt like crap.

Well, he felt like crap before too, but now he felt like crap both physically _and_ because he had forgotten to check on the person he actually cared about.

Naruto didn't even bother removing his hands from his face. It was that bad. "Are you alright, Iruka-sensei?"

"As well as can be expected. What happened to Mizuki?"

"I don't remember. When I came to he was lying like that. I'm pretty sure he's dead."

Naruto could hear Iruka slowly stand up and walk over to examine his traitorous colleague.

"He's dead alright. You say you don't remember anything?" There was another shuffling of feet, probably due to Iruka turning to face him. "Are you alright, Naruto?"

"I have a migraine. Damn it hurts." Naruto took a deep breath to calm his nerves. "And no, I don't remember anything after I saw him ready to stab you."

There was a momentary pause as Iruka pondered his next question and Naruto rubbed his palms deeper into his eyes. He'd never had a headache this bad before.

"Naruto, I want to talk to you about what Mizuki said… about the Kyuubi."

Naruto groaned from the pain before collecting himself and responding. "I figured that he was probably telling the truth, or something close to it, because of the way people treat me, but I also doubt everyone would let the Kyuubi run around the village if that really were the case."

"Partially correct, Naruto." Naruto turned his head towards the sound of the new voice, careful not to let up pressure over his eyes. "Now, I would be interested in hearing about the circumstances concerning tonight's incident."

Naruto was surprised by the arrival, but after a moment allowed relief to sweep over him. Before he could give a response, Iruka had spoken up. "Hokage-sama, Mizuki revealed a twisted version of the truth to Naruto after tricking him into stealing the Scroll of Forbidden Seals as a supposed alternative to passing the standard academy exam."

"We will get to the topic of the Kyuubi in a moment, Iruka. What happened to Mizuki?"

For his part, Naruto was content to sit silently and nurse his migraine while the two older men spoke, though the fact that the old man didn't seem angry was a bit of a relief.

"He was about to perform a killing blow on me when I felt him fall off of me inexplicably. When I regained my bearings I found Naruto sitting here and Mizuki in his current state."

Naruto could make out a faint hum from the old Hokage before a question was directed at him. "And Naruto? What do you remember? What's wrong?"

Naruto paused for a moment. "I have a horrible headache, sorry. Anyways, I was trying to stop Mizuki but I didn't think I'd be able to make it in time. Then I blacked out. I'm not really sure what happened, but when I woke back up Mizuki was dead and Iruka was just getting up."

"I'm sorry about your head, Naruto. I will try to be brief and send you on your way home as quickly as possible, but I'm afraid this discussion can not wait." The Hokage waited as a strong breeze passed through the trees, sending the leaves rustling at the wind's passing. "I believe that what occurred here tonight may very well have to do with the Kyuubi and its connection to you, Naruto."

Naruto was torn between groaning at the prospect of the old man's imminent speech or rejoicing at the prospect of his status finally being revealed to him.

It was going to be a very long night.

* * *

Naruto stumbled through the front door of his messy apartment much later than he would have liked. He blearily made his way to his bedroom and untied his new, used Konoha forehead protector from around his neck before placing it on his dresser. His forest green goggles soon followed. He had actually been wearing them properly since he'd gotten up off of the forest floor to make his way back home. They allowed him to see while still putting a dulling pressure on his eye sockets in an effort to fight the pounding migraine that had yet to disappear.

Absent-mindedly peeling off his jacket and dropping it on the floor of his room, Naruto assessed his condition.

The headache had abated a bit, which was good. He was unusually sore thanks to the day's adventure, which was bad.

Most of all, he was dead on his feet and knew he needed to get up early tomorrow for his final day at the academy.

Ignoring the dirtied and bloodied condition of his clothing, he switched off the light and unceremoniously plopped down onto his bed.

Despite the pain in his head, he was asleep after only a few minutes.

After all, who knew what adventures the new day would bring for the world's most unpredictable jinchuuriki, and maybe something more?

* * *

**A/N:** I want to clear up one thing that people might get confused about. Sarutobi did _not_ see how Mizuki died. He only saw the aftermath of the encounter in his crystal ball - i.e. Naruto, Iruka, and Mizuki lying on the ground.


	2. Walk Of Life

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **12/1/08

**A/N:** Well, here's chapter two of _Wild World_. Maybe a few more people will be able to figure out what's going on here, because I'm not going to tell you.

Where's the fun in that?

**Chapter Title:** _Walk Of Life _by Dire Straights.

* * *

Naruto's eyes cracked open the next morning before his alarm woke him – a rare occurrence to be sure. It was still dark outside, though the eastern skies were beginning to light up with a stunning orange glow that always preceded the sunrise. Naruto lay in bed, staring out of his open window for a few moments taking in the sight. Despite the early hour and the events of the previous night, Naruto felt well rested upon waking for the first time in, well, a very long time.

His room bore proof of how tired he had been the night before. He hadn't even bothered to draw the curtains over his window – instead falling right asleep. Rolling over to turn off his alarm clock lest it go off while he wasn't nearby, he scowled upon noticing that he hadn't bothered to set his alarm either.

Now that was stupid.

It was five-thirty, and Naruto had no desire to go back to sleep. After a few minutes of staring at the plain white ceiling of his bedroom, he resolved to get up and do something with the extra time he had been gifted with this morning. Leisurely contemplating his options, Naruto once again turned his attention to the brightening eastern sky. He couldn't remember the last time he had watched a proper sunrise. Maybe that was just what he needed.

Naruto quickly slid open his window and climbed up to the roof of his apartment complex still clad in his soiled clothing from the day before. He would need to do laundry later today, though it would have to be after the genin orientation.

He lived on the top floor of his three-story complex, so there was no real need to worry about waking neighbors. Finding a comfortable perch on the sloped roof, he spent the next thirty minutes watching the sky slowly light up in a cacophony of reds, oranges, and yellows. When the sun finally showed itself over the massive heads of the Hokages, Naruto climbed back into his apartment through his window and dug out some clean clothes. As a ninja, he kept multiple sets of his preferred orange jumpsuit for occasions like this.

He headed to the shower with his fresh clothes in hand and was pleasantly surprised to find an abundance of hot water. Apparently there were advantages to being an early riser.

As he washed his face, he came to realize that the head-splitting migraine he had been afflicted with last night was gone. He hadn't even remembered it until just now.

Oh.

That's right. Last night.

Last night he had killed Mizuki-sensei.

Naruto stopped what he was doing and leaned against the side of the shower stall – allowing the warm water wash over his back.

Last night he had killed Mizuki-sensei, and he didn't care. The man had been trying to kill him – had been trying to kill Iruka-sensei. And for what? A silly scroll with some advanced ninjutsu in it?

The old man had told Naruto very sternly that the jutsu within the scroll were forbidden for a reason, and that he was not to teach any of his peers the technique that he had learned. From the sound of things, Mizuki would most likely not have been able to properly use any of the jutsu to begin with or gotten himself killed in the attempt.

How stupid was that?

No, Naruto didn't care that Mizuki was dead. He had a serious problem about how it came about though. The old man had told him that most jinchuuriki manifested their prisoner's power in times of great need or stress. So it had finally taken Mizuki's attack on his person to set him off.

Naruto had been treated like crap for his entire life. Looking back, it was almost a shock that something like this had never happened before. While Naruto had never been in a life-threatening situation like this had been, that didn't change the fact that the villagers were none too gentle with him, nor did they ever spare a kind word – with few exceptions.

So this is what it came down to? Who would beat the poor jinchuuriki until he snapped?

It had been inevitable, hadn't it? No matter how hard he tried, Naruto couldn't change the angry glares the villagers gave him or the cruel words and harsh treatment that he had grown to expect every day of his life.

Mizuki had just been the unlucky one – drawing the short straw and setting off Konoha's little time bomb.

It made Naruto sick.

For so long he had thought that if he just tried a little harder – acted a little nicer – the people would begin to treat him like everyone else. He hoped that he could earn their respect by becoming a strong ninja – a Hokage.

But these people legitimately hated him for something he had no control over. Because of who he was – what he was. The old Hokage had told Naruto that the Fourth Hokage's final wish was for Naruto to be seen as a hero who saved the village of Konoha from the monster Kyuubi and protected it day in and day out.

If the villagers didn't even respect the dying wish of a true legend like the Fourth, then why would they ever respect Naruto for anything he did?

Maybe he didn't care about earning their respect any more.

Naruto shook himself out of his depressing train of thought. He was going to be a ninja today. He'd take the rest as it came.

He finished washing himself slowly – he was savoring the hot water that generally eluded him when he woke up later – and stepped out of the shower. Dressing quickly he used his hand to wipe away the condensation on the steamed up mirror of his small washroom in order to brush his teeth.

At least now he knew where the whisker scars had come from.

Then he noticed his eyes. He rubbed them hard with his hands and looked again.

"Crap. That has to be an infection or something."

He pulled down his right eyelid with his finger and rolled his eyes around a few times. That was really odd.

And the weirdest part of all was that Naruto couldn't ever remember being sick. Now that he thought about it that may have been due to the damn fox inside him. The old man had confirmed that Naruto's quick healing was certainly due to the powers of the bijuu. Maybe the resistance to disease was the same?

But that didn't explain why his eyes were infected right now.

Naruto poked and prodded around each of his eyes, but everything felt normal to him. He could see just fine.

Maybe it was just a symptom of whatever disease the fox was trying to heal him of. No doubt they'd be set right in a few days' time. It was probably best to just leave them be.

Naruto finished dressing and headed out the door, the cool morning air rustling his wild hair. He had left his headband on his dresser next to his goggles. He had plenty of time to come back to pick it up before heading off to the academy.

Right now he just wanted to see a friendly face, and the only person he knew would be available this early in the morning was old man Teuchi down at Ichiraku Ramen. He usually opened his stand early to catch some business from the other merchants as they went off to work. Instead of ramen – which wasn't much of a morning food – he offered an assortment of breakfast rolls and tea to help wake up his patrons. It didn't bring in much business, but the old man had told Naruto that it helped him get by.

Maybe Naruto would buy a roll.

The sun was peaking over the rooftops now and the hustle and bustle of the city was picking up. Naruto was rarely awake this early, but appreciated the quiet yet lively streets as the people went on their various ways.

The pleasant atmosphere was shattered as Naruto received his first vicious glare of the day.

Naruto was sick of this. He was tired of giving a damn about the villagers' opinions of him. Who the hell were they to judge him?

He glared right back.

The middle-aged woman caught his defiant gaze and blinked in confusion. She averted her eyes from his, seemingly determined to look away. Naruto kept on walking, but caught the frown on the woman's face when she sent him a puzzled glance at him as he moved past. The woman almost looked a bit afraid.

Naruto found it strange that - though he was considered a terrible monster by many - this was the first inkling of the fear he should expect to evoke from the villagers he had encountered. Was he a whipping boy or a dangerous monster? These stupid people couldn't seem to reach a conclusion.

As he continued on, Naruto made a point to meet the cold glances and angry stares of the villagers. It was strange, though, that today his own cold eyes made them turn away in bewilderment, uncertainty, and that same small glimpse of fear that the first woman had shown.

Was this all it took to cow these people? Just a defiant glare in the face of their hypocritical judgements?

What had he been doing all these years?

He'd been making a fool of himself, doing anything he could think of to seem as carefree, harmless, and approachable as possible for years, and it had changed nothing. Now just one morning of exhibiting a backbone and the glares all turned away?

It was almost unbelievable.

And it made him furious.

By the time he reached Ichiraku's he was fuming. So much time wasted trying to make people who'd never give a damn about him impressed. The only way he could get any recognition was as a weapon, and while Naruto had always dreamed of becoming a great and powerful ninja he hadn't wanted to do it for the sake of that power. He wanted to become that hero for the good he could do and the respect he could earn.

These people didn't deserve him.

He must have been wearing his emotions on his sleeve when he stomped under the cloth hangings separating the ramen stand from the busy street just beyond, because Teuchi started in surprise at his appearance.

"Naruto! What happened? Is something wrong?"

Naruto took a moment to calm down. He hadn't really meant what he'd been thinking just a moment ago – not all of it anyways. He'd just been building up a head of steam. What was it that Iruka had said? A ninja must be calm and disciplined at all times.

The ninja he was talking about most assuredly wasn't Naruto, because the blond boy knew he'd never reach that level of emotional control, but it was still something to strive for. Naruto had no interest in becoming an emotionless stick in the mud like Uchiha Sasuke anyways.

Having regained his composure, Naruto spoke up. "Nothing's wrong, old man. I just had a rough night."

Teuchi gave him an appraising look before nodding slowly. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Naruto just shook his head, eyes staring out of focus down at the counter. "I can't, actually. It was pretty bad though… I found out some things." He shrugged.

Teuchi's eyes widened a bit and he nodded slowly again. "Alright Naruto. I just want you to know that if you need to get anything off your chest, I'm always here."

Naruto finally looked up at the ramen chef. "Thanks for that, old man."

Teuchi cocked his head strangely as he met Naruto's gaze. "Naruto… what happened to your eyes?"

Naruto rubbed his face with his hands again. He hoped they got better soon. "Not sure. They were like this when I woke up. I think they must be infected or something…" He looked down at the hands he had just been rubbing at them with sheepishly.

Teuchi jerked his head, indicating that Naruto should come around back while he wiped down the now contaminated countertop.

The blond scurried off of the stool and around the side of the stand into the kitchen area where he found the sink and washed his hands. When he was younger the old man would let him come back and watch him make the ramen when he was particularly downtrodden by the constant anger of the villagers.

"Sorry about that, old man!"

Finishing up he walked back around the side and collapsed onto his previously occupied stool. "Hopefully it'll pass soon."

Teuchi gave him an odd look as he diced ingredients for the ramen he would make later in the day. "I thought that your eyes were supposed to get red when they were infected? Are you sure you weren't sniffing glue or something?" He chuckled at his own joke.

Naruto blinked a few times at the strange question. "Why would I be sniffing glue?"

The older man cut his laugh short before lowering his head quickly and continuing to chop with renewed vigor. "No reason. Look, I think you should probably see a medic about your eyes, Naruto. You wouldn't want to damage them or get any sicker."

"I feel fine, old man. They're working just great. And they don't look that bad either. It shouldn't be a big deal so long as they get better quickly."

Teuchi stopped chopping before giving Naruto a stern look. "Naruto, they look downright creepy."

Naruto was taken aback by the older man's deadpanned response for a moment before voicing an indignant reply. "They're not that bad!"

"They've got no whites in them! That's pretty creepy from where I'm standing."

"You think these are bad? You should see this girl in my class. She's got eyes that are pretty much _all_ white. Now _that's_ creepy."

"Sounds like a Hyuuga to me, Naruto. Their whole clan has eyes like that. It's not that strange to see them around town – they do live here after all."

"Well what's the big deal then?"

Teuchi straightened up before releasing a long-suffering breath. "Look, all I'm saying is that your eyes look a little strange right now and it might be a good idea to cover them up until they get better. You still have those tinted goggles, right?" Receiving a nod from Naruto, he continued. "Why don't you just wear those for the next few days until they go back to normal? That way you won't have to answer twenty questions every time you run into someone new."

Naruto could see the logic in that. Thinking back, his strange infection may have contributed to the unwillingness of the villagers to meet his gaze that morning. "Alright, I'll do it. I was going to swing by my apartment again before heading to the Tower to get my paperwork filled out anyways."

Teuchi stopped chopping for a moment. "Damn, I can't believe I forgot all about that after the racket you've been making for the last few weeks. You passed the exam this time then?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope, screwed up the exam again. But I got promoted anyways. It has to do with the thing that happened last night that I can't talk about."

Teuchi furrowed his brows at that before nodding and going back to chopping. "Well I won't pry then, but congratulations! If you have a break for lunch why don't you swing by for a bowl on me? You can even bring your teammates if you like."

Naruto looked up at that. "Teammates?"

"Oops. I probably shouldn't have said anything. Just remember to look surprised when they put you on a three man squad, alright?"

A wide grin spread across the blond's face. "Alright old man, I won't rat you out. I should probably get going though, we're meeting at nine."

Teuchi looked at the clock, which read quarter after eight. "You'd better get along then. See you at lunch, Naruto."

The boy dropped off of his stool and gave a wave over his shoulder as he walked out through the storefront curtain.

He made sure to return all of the unpleasant glares he received on his way back home.

* * *

Naruto wandered into his academy classroom a few minutes before eleven - when the genin orientation was set to start - with his goggles pulled firmly over his eyes and his headband – which wouldn't sit properly on his forehead due to the position of his eyewear – tied loosely around his neck. The goggles were tinted a light red color – apparently to combat the sun's brightness. It only took a few minutes before Naruto's eyes had adjusted to the odd filtering and he could see in full color once again. Best of all the red coloration of the lenses made Naruto's off-color eyes impossible to make out.

Still pondering the plethora of information he had received last night from the Hokage and this morning from Teuchi, Naruto found an empty seat in the back row of the class to observe from. He wasn't in the mood to stare down the Uchiha and try to impress the kunoichi in the class. It's not as though his efforts had ever netted any positive responses in the past anyways.

He was pulled away from his musing as Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino stormed through the classroom door – apparently in an effort claim the seat next to Sasuke. Naruto didn't even bother to call out to Sakura this morning. He had always found her cute, and the fact that she was one of the most popular girls in class and a good student to boot had painted her as the perfect target to lavish his affections on in order to gain some recognition from the students as a whole. His new melancholy attitude deterred him, however.

What was the point of trying to impress these kids when their parents were probably telling them horror stories about him every night over dinner? He wished that he could forge some real friendships with his peers – he really did – but after last night's revelations it seemed as though the whole world was working against him ever being normal – or happy.

He was just tired of trying so hard to be liked. Looking back on it, he'd probably done more damage to his image than good with his antics, but he'd always foolishly assumed that he just wasn't pleasant enough for people to be nice to when in fact niceness had nothing to do with it.

The mask he wore for everyone – for that was what it was – was simply a caricature of his real personality that had grown over time. At first he simply built on his playful and carefree nature, but having had no success at softening the hearts of those around him he'd kept falling further and further into the role of the village idiot.

It was pathetic, and it wasn't him.

Not really.

No more mask then. Naruto didn't have anything to prove to these people. He didn't have a reason to pander to their fickle sensibilities. If nothing would ever be good enough for them then nothing was what they would get.

It was a liberating thought, actually.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? This meeting is only for those who passed the test." It was Shikamaru.

Naruto just looked down at the forehead protector hanging around his neck and then back up to the Nara standing over him. "Oh yeah?"

Shikamaru rolled his eyes before sitting down beside Naruto. "I suppose there's a story behind how you got that."

"Maybe some other time Shikamaru, I wouldn't want to interrupt your nap."

The dark haired boy grunted as he rested his head on top of his folded arms, eyes already closing.

Iruka walked through the door at the front of the classroom - looking none the worse for wear after the previous night's ordeal - and began taking role.

"Alright. Now that everyone's here I have to explain how your genin squads will be set up. You'll be placed in a team with two of your classmates led by a jounin instructor that I'll be assigning to you now. First off…"

Naruto was surprised – the old man had been right. Then again, he'd been running that ramen stand for who knows how long and had to have picked up a few things. Actually, now that Naruto thought about it, the old man probably knew more about ninja than Naruto did. Spending all that time making a nuisance of himself had severely cut into study time, and his grades reflected it.

As much as he hated sitting still and reading long-winded explanations, Naruto knew perfectly well that being a good ninja took smarts as well as… well… whatever the hell it was that he had.

The real question was where to start with that. He didn't give a damn about memorizing dates, people, or places. He'd need to find out what it took to become a better ninja.

It was a task for another time.

Naruto was interrupted from his thoughts by the sound of his name.

"…Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Team Eight is…"

So he was with Sakura and Sasuke? He supposed it could be worse. At least Sakura was easy on the eyes. The Uchiha though… well, he wouldn't have to talk to him much if Sasuke's strong but silent persona held true outside of the academy. Maybe he'd pick up some tricks from the arrogant bastard along the way.

Naruto wasn't too proud to admit that the bastard knew what he was doing. To himself, of course. Silently.

Sasuke gave hardly a reaction at the team placement. He was probably brooding in that duck's ass head of his. Sakura, on the other hand, turned in her seat and sent a nasty glare Naruto's way. He almost gave her one right back before he remembered that he was still wearing his goggles – and probably would be for the foreseeable future.

To be fair, it was probably Sakura more than anyone else that he had put off through his clownish behavior. He'd have to do a lot of work to salvage whatever was left of their relationship. Then again, maybe he wouldn't. Mellowing out and giving her some space would probably do more than anything else he could manage.

So his plan was to give one teammate her space while talking to the other as little as possible.

On second thought, that sounded like a shit plan.

He hoped their instructor was one to help mend fences. God knows he had his work cut out for him. Come to think of it, Sasuke and Sakura didn't have the best working relationship either, despite what the pink haired girl might imagine.

Splendid.

Naruto stood up as the last team was announced and the group was given a long break for lunch. They wouldn't have to return to the academy until the afternoon to meet with their instructors.

Well, there was no time like the present to extend the olive branch, and he did have an open invitation for a free lunch. Naruto stood next to the doorway as his classmates filed out and waited for his teammates to pass through. They had been seated together near the front of the classroom, so it took a few moments for them to reach the back of the room and the door.

Sakura, as usual, was fawning all over the Uchiha to his obvious annoyance. He would have snickered had he not been in her place only a day ago. It was strange that she would reject him so strongly for the same type of behavior that she herself displayed, but he couldn't really fault her. They were all idiots, it seemed.

As they reached the door, Sakura finally acknowledged Naruto. Loudly. "What do you want, Naruto? Can't you see that Sasuke and I are busy?"

Naruto just nodded. He didn't want to blow this first attempt at turning over a new leaf. "I was just wondering if you two would like to grab some lunch with me. I know the cook over at Ichiraku's and he promised me and some friends a free meal today, so I was wondering…"

Sasuke had walked out the door before he could even finish.

"Why would we want to eat with you? Just leave us alone, Naruto. It's bad enough that we're stuck on a team with the dead last in our class. We don't want to see you more than we have to."

Naruto took a deep breath to calm down as the girl followed her crush out into the hallway. That had hurt. It really was that bad though, wasn't it? Would he ever be able to dig himself out of the veritable abyss he had sunk himself into? He spoke quietly and dejectedly. "Thanks, Sakura."

He thought he heard the pounding of feet in the hallway stop for a moment before continuing on. It didn't really matter though, did it?

"Hey, don't worry about her, Naruto. Now tell me about this free lunch!"

"Chouji! We were supposed to eat together as a team so that we could get to know each other better!"

"We've known each other since we were infants, Ino. What good is one lunch going to do us?"

Naruto turned to find Chouji, Shikamaru, and Ino arguing behind him. He afforded the heavyset boy a small smile before speaking up. "You guys want to come? I'm sure old man Teuchi wouldn't mind. It's not like my team is interested."

"You shouldn't get so down about those two, Naruto. I can't think of a more troublesome pair to get stuck with."

"Is that supposed to be a complement, Shika? And what about our team meeting?"

Naruto turned to the blond kunoichi. "You guys can have your meeting or whatever when we get there."

Ino looked him up and down, carefully taking in his mismatched and obnoxiously loud clothing before meeting his gaze through his goggles. "I suppose we could. Where was it we're going?"

"Ichiraku Ramen. It's great, trust me."

"Definitely! Let's go!" Chouji was already out the door.

Shikamaru grabbed Ino's wrist and began dragging her behind their teammate.

"Wait! I don't eat ramen. That stuff is terrible for you."

"Relax, Ino. I'm sure the old man can whip you up some rabbit food version. It's not like one bowl is going to kill you." Naruto stopped for a moment in thought. "Come to think of it, if it's your figure you're worried about then maybe you should go nuts. It's not like Sasuke has shown any interest in the kunoichi in our class. Maybe you don't have the right body type for him, if you know what I mean." Shikamaru and Chouji let out chuckles at that, while Ino turned an angry shade of red. "Or maybe he just isn't into girls."

That sent the two boys into hysterical fits of laughter that halted their progress for a good two minutes. They weren't even out of the academy yet!

"Naruto…" Ino apparently took it personally, though Naruto couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

"Relax, Ino. I was just making a joke."

"The only joke around here, Naruto, is you."

Naruto nodded slowly. "I've been figuring that out lately."

That stopped Ino in her tracks. "What?"

The other two boys had regained their composure and turned to listen in on the conversation.

"I figure I've been trying so hard to be liked for so long that I turned into a person that even I don't particularly like. I've decided to just stop trying."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "So all those pranks were just to get people to like you? Doesn't make much sense to me."

Naruto laughed lightly. "Me neither, when you put it like that. Let's just say that people didn't much like me long before I started trying to get their attention and leave it at that."

The three nodded and set off to the ramen bar - quietly at first in light of Naruto's confession. After a few minutes of awkward silence Naruto managed to start up a conversation that finally got them talking again. It was surprisingly easy when he didn't have to try to be the center of attention.

"Hey old man! I'm taking you up on that offer and brought some friends from the academy!"

"Hello again, Naruto. You get an extra teammate?"

"Nah, my teammates bailed on me so I invited a different team. I hope you don't mind."

The old chef smiled and shook his head. It was the first time he could remember Naruto coming by the stand with anyone beside the Hokage and the instructor from the academy. "Not at all. You want to introduce me to your friends?"

Naruto looked to be at a loss for a moment before catching on. "Oh, sorry. This is Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Yamanaka Ino. They're all members of Team…"

"Team Ten." Thanks, Ino.

"Ah, that's right. Your fathers come by here about once a month together, and I think I've seen you and your father here together as well - Chouji, was it?"

"Yep! I keep telling Ino here, this is the best ramen place around!"

Teuchi laughed. "I always appreciate the show of support. Now, what can I get you four?"

"Ah, do you by chance have anything, well, healthy?" Ino seemed to realize the rudeness of her question a moment too late. "Not that ramen is unhealthy!"

The older man just smiled. "One vegetable coming right up. And don't worry about it. Even I don't eat this stuff every day. It does have a whole bunch of calories, but that's what makes it so good!"

"The calorie is simply a measure of flavor," Naruto added sagely.

"Good one, Naruto! That's one for the books. I'll have two bowls of pork, please."

"Two miso for me, old man."

Shikamaru furrowed his brows as he stared down the menu and let out a long-suffering sigh. "So many choices… it's just too…"

"He'll have a bowl of miso to start." Naruto ripped the menu from the lazy boy's grip. He just couldn't bear to see someone so unenthusiastic about ramen.

"Troublesome."

Ino joined Naruto in rolling her eyes at him.

"So, what do you think our sensei is going to be like?" Ino still hadn't forgotten her lunch agenda and wouldn't be deterred.

"You guys would probably know better than I would about the jounin instructors. Your dads are all jounin, right?"

Chouji nodded as a first steaming bowl was set in front of him. Naruto could tell it was hard to resist diving in for the large boy, but who could blame him? "Our dads were all on the same genin team when they were our age. They actually became sort of famous."

"Wow, that's really cool. So you guys probably knew all about the whole three man team thing before you got here."

"Well yeah, but I can't get my dad to spill the details on any of the stuff we're expected to do as genin. He says we'll have to learn as we go, though I did manage to figure out that there's some sort of test we still have to complete that our sensei will give us." Ino was perfectly content to talk before sinking her chopsticks into her own bowl, though after the initial taste seemed happy with her fare.

"Are you serious? What sort of test is it?" This was unwelcome news to Naruto, who was still on a high from having finally obtained his forehead protector.

"Each jounin comes up with his or her own test," Shikamaru offered between mouthfuls. "Dad said it's a test to make sure that we're ready to start missions."

"But we already passed the academy exam! Our skills are supposed to be good enough!" Panic was beginning to set in for Naruto.

"Maybe the test isn't about skills."

Naruto, Ino, and Shikamaru turned to Chouji as he slurped through his second bowl of ramen.

"What?"

Naruto rubbed his chin. "Huh. Maybe that does make sense – in a strange sort of way. After all, Iruka-sensei did always tell us that there was more to being ninja than shuriken tricks and ninjutsu."

"Haha, isn't that the truth! Dad's barely better than I am at throwing shuriken and he's a jounin. He told me that's why he always dragged Shikaku around with him." Ino noticed Naruto's far away look and decided to elaborate. "That's Shika's father."

Naruto shook himself from his thoughts. "Yeah, I got that. Did anyone want anything else? I think it's about time we got back to the academy."

Three shaking heads were his reply. After thanking Teuchi the group wandered back to the academy to await their instructors. Overall, Naruto would consider the lunch a success, despite not making any progress with his own teammates.

As the four walked back into the classroom, a familiar voice called out towards the group. "What's with the goggles, Naruto? I thought you'd ditch them after you got your headband. And how did you get your headband, anyways?"

Naruto turned and headed over towards Kiba, who was sitting on the edge of his table with his teammates – Shino and Hinata – seated beside him.

"Well the goggles are to keep things out of my eyes, obviously."

Kiba gave him a sideways glance before speaking. "Like what?"

Naruto let a small grin grace his face. "Fleas, mostly."

The dog trainer scowled before joining the blond in a wide smile. "Very funny."

"And I got the headband for completing an absolutely super-secret mission. Sorry, but if I say any more I'll have to kill you." Naruto's attention was drawn to the small puppy resting inside Kiba's fur-lined jacket, which gave a loud yip in response to Naruto's comment. "Oh, sorry boy." Naruto looked up to Kiba before continuing. "And your little dog, too."

Kiba huffed in mock outrage, the puppy yipped once again, and the shy, dark haired girl who sat nearby – Hyuuga Hinata - let out a light laugh. Now that was rare to hear.

"You could try, Naruto, but me and Akamaru aren't so easy to take down."

"Well let's just leave it at that so we won't have to go there, yeah?"

Naruto was having fun with this idle banter. No more posturing or absurd declarations. No more defending his imagined honor and dignity. Life was so much better when you didn't sweat the small things.

"I'd better get over to Romeo and Juliet before Sasuke has an aneurysm. See you around, Kiba."

"Later, Naruto."

The blond wandered over to the row in front of Sasuke and Sakura's own before pulling out a chair in front of them and straddling it facing backwards so that the chair's back rose up between his legs. "So how was lunch?"

Sakura turned around to glare at Naruto for interrupting her one-sided conversation with Sasuke before looking away abruptly. Naruto thought he saw her expression soften a bit, but she wouldn't meet his eyes. "It was alright. Pretty quiet, actually."

"And you, bastard?"

"Fine. And what do you care about it, moron? Your goggles look as retarded as always, by the way."

"I like these goggles, and I'll take that as a compliment coming from a guy who wears an ugly red and white stain on all of his clothes."

So much for mending fences. Naruto just couldn't help himself – the guy rubbed him wrong all over.

Sakura's glare was back again. "That's rich coming from a guy who wears a bright orange clown costume."

Naruto nodded. "You have a point. I was actually thinking of changing my wardrobe pretty soon. No better time to do it than now that we're actually ninja, right?"

"I heard that, Naruto, and I'm holding you to it! I'll see you this weekend! It's the least I can do after lunch today!"

Naruto winced slightly as Ino's voice drowned out all conversation in the room. Damn.

Sakura turned in her seat to find her one time friend and current rival. "So what did you end up doing for lunch, Naruto?"

"Well, since you two didn't seem interested I invited Ino, Shikamaru, and Chouji to come along. It was pretty fun, and they let me in on a little of what to expect now that we're genin. Their fathers are part of a pretty successful team, actually. They're all jounin now, of course."

Sakura nodded slowly. She seemed honestly surprised. "Well what kind of things did they tell you?"

Naruto answered with a smile on his face. "Nothing too important, I don't think. I'll let you know if any of it comes up though. I wouldn't want to get their dads in trouble over nothing, and the best way to do that is to keep my mouth shut for now."

Again, Sakura seemed to agree with him. Go figure.

Naruto turned around to face the front of the class. Time ticked by and one by one the genin teams were led away by their respective jounin. Team Ten was taken by Sarutobi Asuma – a man Naruto had met a few times over the years due to the fact that he was the Hokage's own son. Ino and Chouji had given him waves on their way out, while Shikamaru had settled for a nod. Naruto supposed it was more than he should have hoped for from the lazy boy.

A few minutes later Kiba's team was led away by a very curvy kunoichi. Catching Naruto's eye as he followed her out the door, the dog tamer stopped to give the blond two enthusiastic thumbs up. Damn that kid was a pervert.

Then again, Naruto wouldn't mind having an instructor with the kind of body that the centerfolds he used to stare at while creating his infamous perverted jutsu had. Nowadays he relegated his magazine "reading" – which was the only real reading he did on a regular basis – to only a half an hour before bed each day. He was trying to cut back, honestly.

No, he wouldn't mind that sort of sensei at all. Come to think of it, he may have actually paid attention in class if the academy administration had cottoned on to that strategy. Maybe he'd bring it up with the Hokage.

Time slipped by as he spent the next hour and a half imagining one of his centerfold ladies helping him correct his taijutsu with a distinctly "hands on" approach. It was only when Sakura started an angry rant against the non-descript ninja who had just walked into the room that he was pulled from his fantasy world.

Naruto died a little inside at the sight of him. Oh well, he could still dream.

The man sported a thick stalk of straight, white hair that stuck out at an angle from the crooked forehead protector he wore – which covered his left eye completely. The rest of his face was obscured by a navy blue mask, which melded with the standard jounin uniform he wore over the rest of his body. The man didn't look particularly impressive, but perhaps that was because he was a particularly good ninja. Naruto didn't want to trap himself by making any false judgments. God knows he'd been the victim of more than enough of those himself.

Naruto glanced at the wall clock before turning back to the jounin. "Ever heard of a watch?"

The man just stared at him before closing his visible eye in a way that could only be interpreted as a smile. "No, perhaps you'll be able to explain it to me on the roof."

Naruto was about to retort when the jounin disappeared in a puff of smoke. The blond boy frowned and blinked his eyes owlishly behind his goggles. The thin, white aura he had seen around the man before he disappeared had just been a trick of the light, right?

* * *

Five minutes later found the three graduates sitting on the roof of the academy facing their instructor, who was leaning back against the railing along the side of the rooftop.

"I thought we'd start out by introducing ourselves to one another. Now who wants to go first?"

At Sakura's suggestion, their sensei – Hatake Kakashi – had led off and told them a whole lot of nothing. The man was rather infuriating. Sakura had gone next, stating her undying love for all things Uchiha and her rather poignant distaste for Naruto. It was nothing the blond didn't already know. Sasuke apparently liked nothing and was living solely for the purpose of killing someone and rebuilding his defunct clan – which explained a lot, actually. Naruto came to the conclusion that so far the Uchiha was shooting zero for one - which was rather amazing considering how many girls he had hanging all over him. He didn't share that sentiment with the others, however.

When Naruto's turn finally came, he had to think a bit. Likes and dislikes? Well he liked a handful of people, so they were on the good list. He disliked a whole bunch of other people, but wisely decided to leave them off of the second list. Ramen was good. Waiting for anything - including ramen - was generally bad. Dreams for the future? Damned if he knew. Just yesterday he'd probably say his dream was to become Hokage, but now that he had rethought his motivations, he wasn't so sure about that one.

"I want to become more powerful."

Kakashi's visible eyebrow rose. "And why is that?"

"So that I can use that power when I need it, obviously."

"And what would you use that power for?"

Naruto shrugged. "Anything I want, really."

* * *

Naruto groaned at his predicament. He really was a moron. He found himself hanging upside down from a tree with a rope wrapped tightly around his ankle.

How had he fallen for such a simple trap? Twice?

Kakashi had beaten the tar out of him – that was no question. Simply put, there was no way that he was getting a bell off of the strange man. Then again, hadn't he decided that this test wasn't about skills yesterday at lunch?

One thing that had come from his failed skirmish with the jounin was confirmation that he was indeed _not_ seeing things in the classroom the day before. When Kakashi had used the substitution jutsu against his shadow clone assault and Sasuke's surprise shuriken barrage, Naruto had again seen the strange white aura surround the man before the jutsu was activated.

That had never happened before yesterday, but then again it was unique to Kakashi as far as he knew. Strange, that.

If only he could get either Sasuke or Sakura to grab the bells while he and his clones distracted Kakashi. After all, hadn't Ino said her father liked to pair with Shikamaru's dad because of their different strengths?

Naruto froze at that thought. He'd just stumbled upon the secret to this exam. As Chouji had pointed out, the test wasn't to gauge their skill level. It was obviously meant to test their other qualifications as a ninja, and as part of a three-man team, teamwork would be paramount!

That had been a rather easy conclusion to come to, actually. Now he just needed to find Sasuke and Sakura and beg their help. As if that would be an easy task.

Crap! Kakashi had just kicked him out of the tree where he was watching Sasuke fight the jounin. At least the bastard had gotten beaten almost as badly as Naruto had – he was now stuck wholly in the ground with only his head free to breath.

Naruto blinked. He was still upside down in the tree Kakashi had left him in.

He was a real idiot! He hadn't read the whole damn analysis of the shadow clone jutsu that had been written in the Scroll of Forbidden Seals! This must have been one of the abilities of the shadow clone!

The Hokage had told him the other night that using the shadow clone technique could kill a person with low chakra reserves and that Naruto had been lucky to stumble upon that particular jutsu first because he had such high reserves to fall back on.

Never again would Naruto skip the fine print regarding a jutsu. What had he been thinking?

Well at least he knew now, and he was incredibly happy that he had taken the time to send shadow clones after Sasuke and Sakura to report on their progress. He had thought the clones would make their way back to him and deliver their reports in person, but apparently that was unnecessary. Any memories that the clones gained would revert to him when the clone disappeared.

The possibilities that this development offered were endless, but he couldn't think on that now. He had to get down and find his so-called teammates.

As he regained his feet on the ground, he paused again at another realization. Sasuke had used a fire jutsu against Kakashi, and the jounin had countered with an earth technique. What was strange, though, was that when Sasuke gathered his chakra for the attack, his body had been enveloped in a thin aura of deep red that danced like flickering flames. So it wasn't just Kakashi, then. Even stranger was the aura that surrounded Kakashi – for even though it was still the color of purest white it now looked bumpy and solid, as if the aura had taken on the properties of hard stone.

That was weird. And sort of cool.

It also meant that his clones could see the auras too. Naruto decided that he would experiment with this. Crossing the index and middle finger of each hand before him, he created a single shadow clone. Now with the clone watching he formed another clone in the same manner.

"Did it work?"

The first clone grinned. "Wait and see."

"Can you dispel yourself?"

With that the clone was gone in a puff of white smoke. The second clone quickly followed suit.

Naruto immediately felt the memory come to him. As the memory of himself gathered chakra for the technique, he saw himself become surrounded in an aura of brightest yellow that took no shape or defining characteristic – just as Kakashi's aura had looked when he used the substitution technique.

Very cool.

Did the characteristics of the aura depend on the type of jutsu that was being used? It certainly made sense. The color of the aura was probably determined by the individual, then, since Kakashi's had been the same pure white in every circumstance.

So caught up in his musings was he that Naruto lost all track of time. He was brought back to his senses by the sound of an alarm sounding over the treetops.

Crap.

* * *

Naruto trudged into his bedroom late that evening.

Team Seven had passed their exam – though that hadn't done much to diminish the shame Naruto felt for being the only one tied to a stump. Apparently "being the first to fail" counted for something. Secretly Naruto thought that Kakashi just needed an excuse to tie one of them to the tree so that the real test could begin. It had been pretty easy to explain his theory to his teammates while they started into their lunches, and after only a bite of Sakura's rice the white haired man had appeared to congratulate them on their success.

The rest of the day had been spent experimenting with his shadow clones. He now knew their limitations and their applications, as well as the fact that trying to assimilate too many memories at once was a distinctly bad idea.

Next on the agenda would be trying to get Kakashi to teach him a few of the jutsu he knew. The earth move used on Sasuke and the genjutsu he had taken down Sakura with had both looked appealing to the young man.

He had a lot of catching up to do in his mind, having spent so much time slacking in the academy. He knew that he wouldn't be content until he had grown into the best ninja he could be – and damn what anyone else thought. Naruto was out for himself from here on out, and the only expectations he cared about measuring up to were his own.

He would be a very harsh taskmaster.

The blond moved to his dresser before setting his forehead – now neck – protector and goggles on the smooth surface. Wandering into the bathroom he began to brush his teeth, but stopped when he caught sight of his discolored eyes once again.

There hadn't been any change in them for the last two days, and Naruto was beginning to worry.

He was also beginning to sympathize with old man Teuchi.

They _were_ creepy.

Metallic blue orbs stared back at Naruto from under his wild blond locks – their only distinguishing feature being the ever widening concentric circles that spread from the pupils outwards.

Like ripples in a mercury pond.

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter practically wrote itself. I wrote the whole thing in one day with no outline whatsoever. Every word of this chapter came to me at a whim, just like the first chapter of this story. It was fun to write. This is my fun story, so that's okay.

Before you send me any questions – if you're inclined to do so – I want to make absolutely clear that I have no idea where this story is headed.

No idea.

Stuff like pairings I plan to leave open for now. That sort of decision won't be left up to you readers, but if you have a preference feel free to make your case. Like I said I'm open to pretty much anything at this point.

The one and only thing I want to make sure I put in this story is the concept of Antichrist!Sage of the Six Paths.

Yeah.

Did you think I was kidding when I said this story would be my screwed up little sandbox?

I hope you all enjoyed the somewhat random chapter. I think I did a decent job – though unintentionally – of introducing enough new elements that this fic has the potential to deviate very far from canon. Not sure if it will go that route, but there you have it.

I don't think that Naruto is going to turn out to be some evil bastard. I just think he'll be a bit more selfish than he is in canon – not nearly as magnanimous and incorruptible.

Hopefully it will prove to be a fun project. I hope you agree.


	3. Jump

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **1/9/09

**A/N:** I think by now pretty much everyone has caught on to what's happening here. Except for Naruto, of course.

Here's chapter three.

**Chapter Title:** _Jump_ by Van Halen

* * *

"Hey!"

Naruto pretended to ignore the voice. Maybe if he willed it hard enough, it would just go away.

"Hey! Hey, boss! I'm talking to you blondie!"

It was worth a try.

Naruto spun on his heel and confronted the loud midget who had been yelling after him for nearly a block.

"Do I know you, kid?"

The small boy attempted to glare at him in between loud pants, while simultaneously trying to adjust the long scarf that trailed after him so that it hung neatly. He only succeeded in looking rather ridiculous.

Naruto really didn't have time to entertain the kid right now. On second thought, maybe he did. His new sensei hadn't been particularly prompt the last two days. Regardless, he wasn't in the mood to be babysitting.

The boy was still looking at him through narrowed eyes. For a seasoned recipient of malicious glares like Naruto, it seemed a rather poor attempt at cowing him.

"Oh, right. Right." Naruto scrunched up his face in mock confusion and placed his hand on his chin in thought. He let the silence stretch out for a minute before snapping his fingers in staged realization. "You're the Hokage's grandson."

The small boy, having regained his breath, straightened and crossed his arms over his chest in protest. Naruto just grinned back. He probably should have felt guilty jerking the younger boy around, but he was feeling a bit playful and – quite frankly – sometimes there was nothing like having a laugh at the expense of someone younger and stupider than you were.

"Wait, wait. It's coming to me." Naruto held up his right hand to stop the boy from interrupting him while dramatically placing his left over his forehead – making sure to surreptitiously keep an eye on the boy through his goggles. "Oh, I got it! Konoha! Um, Konoha…ta…ra…"

The small boy was fuming now. "It's Konohamaru!"

Naruto dispensed with the act and dropped his hands to his sides. "That was my next guess. Jeez, talk about impatient youth these days." The blond could only break out into a laugh at the grumpy look that stole across Konohamaru's face. "I was just kidding, Konohamaru. Now what did you need? I have to meet my sensei for our first mission in fifteen minutes."

The scowl dropped off of the young Sarutobi's face immediately. "Really? Are you going to go fight dangerous missing nin? Or guard a princess?"

Naruto grinned. "Yeah, that would be pretty cool, huh?" The grin slipped away. "Almost as cool as you telling me what you wanted."

Konohamaru blinked a few times before pulling a small scroll from the pouch at his waist. "I got the scroll you asked for."

Now it was Naruto's turn to blink as he accepted the scroll from the other boy. He turned the rolled parchment over in his hands before pulling on the loose end and finding the words _Body Flicker_ written neatly along the leading edge of the paper. "No kidding? I thought it'd take you a while longer."

Naruto was legitimately surprised. When the brat had asked the blond to teach his sexy jutsu to him the other day after witnessing it's use against the Hokage, he didn't think the kid would turn up with one of his anal-retentive sensei's jutsu scrolls so quickly – especially since the blond had been specific about which jutsu was to be traded. In fact, Naruto hadn't expected the kid to come through on the deal at all.

"Yeah! So can you teach me that awesome jutsu you used against the old man now?"

Naruto nodded slowly, still a bit dumbfounded by the ease with which the brat had swindled his sensei. "Yeah, sure. I'll meet you this afternoon, alright?"

"Which jutsu is that, by the way? I'll bet it's a big one that blows away your enemies, right?"

Naruto shrugged him off and turned to continue on to the small bridge where he was to meet with the rest of his team.

"Okay, well, I'll see you this afternoon, right?"

The blond gave a small wave over his shoulder and pulled open the scroll to begin reading. He really wanted to learn this technique.

* * *

_Mastery of the Body Flicker technique requires proficiency in pedal tension and adhesion skills. Under no circumstances should a ninja attempt to use the Body Flicker without first gaining combat-proficient capabilities in these control elements._

"What. The. Hell."

Naruto growled in frustration as he stepped onto the wooden bridge where Team Seven was to meet. He angrily rolled up the scroll and stowed it away as his two teammates turned to see him. Sasuke looked away almost immediately and went back to leaning against the wooden railing of the bridge. Sakura spared him a longer glance from her place across from Sasuke before going back to staring over the water.

Naruto wondered how long they had both been standing here. Surely Sakura had tried to talk up her crush for at least a few minutes before his indifference deterred her.

No matter. He had a scroll to work through.

On second thought, maybe she knew something about pedal tension or control elements? He almost asked, but his better judgment shot that idea down immediately. They didn't sound like things that were taught in the academy, and he was sure he'd never heard anything of the sort mentioned in Iruka's lectures.

At least the ones he had been present for.

Well, if he wasn't going to be making any progress on the Body Flicker, then he may as well try to find something else worthwhile to learn. Naruto had the shadow clone jutsu, true, but what he really needed was something powerful. Something destructive. Something flashy.

Something with fire.

And he knew just who to get it from.

"Hey bastard, what was that fire technique you used yesterday against Kakashi?"

Sasuke looked at the blond for a moment before smirking. "Saw that, did you? It's a clan technique passed down from parent to child. An Uchiha isn't considered an adult within the clan until he can perform it." Naruto thought he saw the unflappable boy's face tighten at the mention of his clan. He knew that the Uchiha was an orphan like himself – that his family had died sometime right after they had entered the academy. It was no surprise that mention of them brought up conflicting feelings for Sasuke. "It's called the Grand Fireball jutsu, and all Uchiha learn it."

There was definitely an opening there for a tasteless jab at Sasuke's family, but Naruto had already worked out his mean streak this morning and taunting the dark haired boy would only hinder him in his personal mission for the morning. The Uchiha's pride was the boy's weakness, but exploiting it required a good deal of care.

"Can you show me?"

Sasuke snorted. "Now why would I want to do something like that, moron?"

Naruto cocked his head and appraised the dark haired boy for a moment. "Never mind. Sorry. I should have realized that it took too much chakra. We wouldn't want you passing out on our first mission, after all." Naruto walked over to the railing of the bridge opposite from the Uchiha – a few feet from Sakura's side – and leaned over, staring down at the gently flowing water absentmindedly.

It only took ten seconds for Sasuke to crack. "Unlike you, moron, I have plenty of chakra to spare."

Naruto gave him a glance over his shoulder but quickly went back to watching the water under the bridge.

"Fine."

Naruto heard Sasuke stomping across the bridge to stand next to him. He had to work to suppress the small grin that threatened to creep across his face, but managed to control himself as he turned to watch Sasuke with a quirked eyebrow. Sakura had perked up a bit and was watching the two boys intently.

"Watch and learn, moron. This is why I was the top student in the academy and you were, well, you."

Naruto kept a frown from forming, but only just. He needed to pay close attention here if he was to learn anything.

Sasuke walked to the railing and stood in a relaxed pose while breathing evenly and deliberately in anticipation of his demonstration. Finally ready, his hands jumped through a short series of seals before he inhaled deeply, brought his right hand to his mouth with his thumb and index finger meeting in a circle around his lips, and blew out a thin stream of white hot fire that quickly spread into a mass more than ten feet across over the running water below.

Naruto was glad for his odd goggles then, because even though the exposed skin on his face was subjected to the heat of Sasuke's fire, his eyes were completely protected from the blaze – which would have normally caused him to squint or look away. Once again, Naruto noticed the crimson aura of flames surround the boy's body before he released his jutsu. It was definitely something he'd have to look into sooner or later.

The technique as a whole didn't seem too complicated. Naruto had easily picked up the seals that Sasuke had used to mold his chakra. There was more to it than that, of course. Using ninjutsu took intent and control of one's chakra to actually work. Anyone could make the strange hand signs that ninja used, but only a person who had learned to manipulate his chakra properly could form it into ninjutsu.

He had all of the clues that he needed though.

At least he thought he did.

Sasuke had made a big to-do about sucking in a huge breath of air before unleashing his flame. In fact from where Naruto stood it had looked like the Uchiha had actually breathed out fire – like some sickly-pale, stuck-up dragon.

Well, Naruto could do that too. He hoped.

Slowly, he moved his hands through the seals that Sasuke had used. He'd never been particularly good at these – mostly due to lack of trying. The academy jutsu only took a few seals each. The Transformation jutsu only used one. Stringing them together certainly wasn't his forte. He'd have to remember to correct that, and soon, if he wanted to start learning some more complex ninjutsu.

And damn did he ever.

"What are you doing, moron?" Sasuke was watching Naruto with a frown on his face as the blond moved through the seal sequence slowly and deliberately.

"What does it look like? I'm going to try this baby out."

"You can't do that!" The Uchiha sounded almost alarmed.

Naruto dropped his hands and turned to look at his teammate. "And why not?"

Sasuke had regained some of his composure and was quickly trying to think up a good reason. Even Naruto could smell the bullshit before it came out of the boy's mouth. "You don't have a fire affinity."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow, though his goggles mostly hid the action. "What the hell does that mean?"

The Uchiha smirked back, much too pleased with himself for Naruto's liking. "Like I'd tell you, moron."

Leave it to Sakura to jump in and try to awe her teammates with her chuunin-level book smarts.

* * *

"Does everything seem to be in order, then, Kakashi?"

The addressed man looked up from the picture he was holding to nod. "Why did Naruto wear his goggles for his photograph, Lord Hokage?"

The older man sighed and settled gently in the seat behind his desk. "I'm afraid that the events of a few nights ago may have left a lasting impression on the boy. He had the goggles on him at the time, and I fear he's been clinging to them a bit more strongly than usual since then."

"When he killed Mizuki with the Kyuubi's power?"

"Yes. I believe he was slightly traumatized by the whole ordeal. He was acting a bit oddly when I saw him for his registration. Hopefully, he'll come to terms with it sooner rather than later. The goggles are most likely merely a comforting item that he's latched on to."

"So you let him take his picture with them on. I see."

The old Hokage gave a low chuckle. "I don't recall making you remove your mask for your registration picture, Kakashi. You never did drop the habit of wearing it, either."

"No, Lord Hokage. I didn't."

"So all of the information checks out then? Excellent. I must say that I'm proud of you for finally taking on this responsibility, Kakashi. I have faith that you'll do an excellent job of guiding these three."

Kakashi set the picture back on the Hokage's desk. "I think I'm running late enough now, Lord Hokage. I should be off."

The older ninja's face contorted into a confused frown. "Late? What time did you tell your genin to meet you, Kakashi?"

"Hm… about an hour and a half ago, I think." With that, the jounin was gone.

Sarutobi could only shake his head at his top jounin's antics. Hopefully the children would have humor enough to tolerate the man.

* * *

"So how do we know I don't have a fire affinity?"

"Because you haven't been tested yet to see which affinity you have."

Naruto blinked. "Okay, but I still don't how that means that I _don't_ have a fire affinity. If anything, we just don't _know_ that I don't. Have you been tested yet, Sasuke?"

"Hmph. All Uchiha have an affinity for fire. It's part of our bloodline."

"Fascinating." Naruto turned back to looking over the stream below and going through his hand seals. He wanted to get this right.

"Naruto! Haven't you been listening?"

"It's fine, Sakura. It's not like the moron can do it, anyway. If anything, he'll just hurt himself."

The blond almost growled at that. He was damn sick of everyone telling him he was useless.

Now he really wanted to do this right.

Another few minutes of practice and he was ready. Do the hand seals. Draw his chakra to his lungs. Exhale. Think _fire._ He had to want it.

Oh, did he want it.

Naruto was a bit stunned when white-hot flame erupted from his mouth. He could feel the heat on his cheeks, and was so elated that for a moment, he lost his concentration.

That had _hurt_. He'd have to put some ice on his cheeks or something – water at the very least. They must be a bit burned from that.

Still, he kept the jutsu going for a number of seconds after recovering from his temporary lapse in control. It was amazing, really. His fireball was definitely bigger than Sasuke's – easily over a dozen feet in diameter. It was so large that the bottom of the sphere was boiling the top of the stream with its heat, causing blistering vapors to billow up from below the bridge.

As his lungs reached close to empty and Naruto prepared to end the jutsu, he was hit by a moment of inspiration. Could he push the fireball forward? So far it had only affected the area right in front of him, but maybe he could throw it – or blow it away from him? That would be an even better attack. He could use it at long range!

With a thought and a concerted _push_ with his chakra, Naruto's lungs were empty and his Grand Fireball was rolling forward through the air at impressive speed – faster than a ninja could run, anyways. The fireball angled down toward the stream, its heat causing more and more of the peaceful waters to roil and burst into steam as it came in contact with the fluid. When the fiery orb finally settled into the water, steam literally exploded out from the point of impact causing a massive geyser of superheated water. It was so large that it obscured the stream from view and rolled off onto the roadway on either side of the streambed and into the streets. The white cloud continued to roll and lift until it had covered nearly a city block before slowly dissipating in the cool morning air.

"Oops."

"Naruto!"

"…"

"Sasuke!"

The three genin turned to see their jounin sensei land on the railing of the bridge with a stern look in his eye.

"You should know better than to use such a jutsu within the city limits. What were you thinking? Someone could have gotten hurt."

Sasuke said nothing, his face twisting into an expression of apoplectic fury that none of the other ninja present had ever seen on the boy.

"It was Naruto, sensei! He did it."

Kakashi stared at the pink haired girl for a few moments, trying to digest her words. "What? Do you honestly expect me to…"

"I'm sorry sensei, I did it." Naruto rubbed the back of his head ashamedly. "I didn't expect it to be so big, actually." He stopped rubbing and took on a pensive expression, easily ignoring the slight burns on his cheeks. "I'm kind of surprised it worked, too."

The masked jounin looked between his three genin in confusion. "Naruto did this? How?"

The blond spoke up immediately. "Well since you were running so late, Sasuke was nice enough to teach me…"

"I did _not_ teach you!" The Uchiha's voice was dripping venom as he glared with hate at his blond teammate. "I showed you the damn jutsu because you asked me to! You _stole_ it!"

Naruto stared at him for a moment. "What the hell did you think I was asking you for, bastard? It's not like I enjoy watching you show off."

Their argument was interrupted in its early stages by the arrival of three, masked ANBU, who promptly turned to Kakashi. "What's going on here, sir? Did you see what caused the disturbance?"

This time it was the white haired jounin who rubbed his head in embarrassment. "I apologize. It seems my students are even more impatient that I gave them credit for and felt the need to experiment with ninjutsu in my absence."

The leading ANBU's masked face turned to look at the three children, eventually settling on Sasuke. "Are you saying that one of your genin caused this? On accident?"

"That's correct. And again, I apologize. I'll be sure to keep a closer eye on them in the future."

The ANBU agent nodded before turning back to the genin, still giving Sasuke most of his attention. "As impressive as that jutsu was for a genin, please be cognizant of where you are performing techniques. Luckily no one seems to be injured, but such things can carry heavy consequences if they happen too often or in the wrong place." The man turned back to Kakashi before issuing his goodbye, spoken with no small hint of reverence for the one-eyed man. "Good luck with your missions today, sir." Kakashi's nod was to his back as he and his partners departed swiftly.

Naruto couldn't be sure, but it seemed like the man thought that the Uchiha was the culprit. Not surprising, really, though it did seem to make Sasuke even more enraged. Maybe he was sore about receiving praise that he didn't actually deserve?

"I think we need to have a quick chat before we head to the tower. Follow me to the training grounds." Kakashi left at a good clip – never once turning to make sure his team was following – but slow enough so that they could keep up even with their short legs and basic skills.

* * *

"So let me get this straight. You," Kakashi pointed at Naruto lazily, "asked Sasuke to show you his ninjutsu that you saw yesterday during our exam." He received an enthusiastic nod in reply. "And you…" He next pointed to Sasuke, ignoring the murderous glare he was sending his teammate, "showed him."

Sasuke didn't answer.

"Exactly! So he was showing me how to do the ninjutsu!"

Sasuke lost it. "I was showing you the ninjutsu, idiot! Not how to do it!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Well you did it where I could see it, bastard, so you were showing me how to do it by showing me!"

Kakashi put his palm to his forehead, the beginnings of a headache already forming. It was only ten fifteen for God's sake! "If you two weren't screaming at each other about this, I'd think you were pulling my leg. You really used this jutsu on your first try, Naruto?"

"Well, yeah. But I was trying really hard to get it right. I did burn my face a bit, though."

Kakashi followed the boy's hand as he moved it to his right cheek, but couldn't see what the boy meant. Maybe he had just felt the heat on his face and overreacted.

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Well I _was_ burned. I guess it healed already."

"Dummy! Burns don't heal that quickly!" Sakura had finally decided to enter the fray.

The blond frowned a bit. He knew that he healed faster than other children, but had never given it much thought until now. His face twisted into an ugly scowl as realization hit him.

_That damn fox!_

Then again, super-human healing was certainly a plus, now that he thought about it. So was being able to take out an off the reservation academy instructor who wanted to separate his favorite adult's head from his shoulders.

Maybe there was something to be said for being an ultimate weapon?

"Regardless, I'd like to see you perform the jutsu again if you're feeling up to it, Naruto. Frankly, I've never heard of someone mastering a jutsu of this level in just a few minutes from seeing it done once and without it being copied outright."

Sasuke flinched and, if possible, looked even dourer than before. Naruto could literally feel the hate rolling off of him now.

"Knock that off, Sasuke. You're teammates and I expect you to act like it."

Sasuke turned his glare on Kakashi, who simply raised a bored eyebrow, before taking a deep breath to calm down. He still glared at Naruto – just without the tangible aura of hatred that he'd exuded before.

Naruto shrugged. He'd been getting glares like that from ninja off an on for as long as he could remember. Turning away from the group, he walked up to the edge of the river where he'd been humiliated the previous day and took a deep breath.

He was confident he could do it this time, now that he'd done it once already. Flashing through the hand seals as quickly as his sub-par ability allowed, Naruto again focused his chakra to his lungs and concentrated on the flickering flames, the warmth, and the freedom of fire as it danced – almost as though it were alive. Exhaling, he was relieved to see the blistering flames shoot out and form into a ball as he concentrated on the spherical shape of the jutsu, careful to maintain his concentration and avoid more burns.

Unlike last time however, Naruto didn't wait until his air supply ran out to release the jutsu. As soon as it had formed into the massive ball of flame, he gave it the same push he had before and sent it rocketing out over the river, causing steam to leap up from beneath its passing. Nearly thirty feet out, the ball dipped into the gently flowing water and burst in a massive pillar of super-heated vapor. Smiling at his success, he turned around to give a triumphant look at the rest of his team.

Sakura looked mildly impressed, though she seemed to be suppressing some emotion there. Sasuke still looked murderous and wouldn't meet Naruto's eyes. Kakashi's one visible eye was as wide as Naruto had ever seen it, still looking towards the path of the fireball.

"That was…well… it was perfect." It was by far the biggest compliment that the jounin had ever given in their presence. In fact, it may have been the only compliment he had given.

"You see! He stole my technique!" Sasuke wasn't going to let this go without a fight.

"What do you care, bastard? I may save your ass with that jutsu some day. Aren't we supposed to be working together to get stronger? And isn't this something you learned back when we first entered the academy? What's the big deal?"

"What's the big deal? I spent a month and a half just trying to get it to work at all! I still haven't mastered it yet!" Sasuke stopped like a deer in the headlights, shocked at having admitted his own failings. A moment later he recovered and resumed his rant with renewed fervor. "Teach me that clone jutsu you used yesterday, then! A jutsu for a jutsu! It's only fair."

"I can't teach it to you. The old man specifically told me that I'm not allowed to. It's a restricted technique."

"Then how the hell did a moron like you get his hands on it? Kakashi, tell this idiot to teach me his clone move!"

"Enough!" Kakashi looked to be at his wit's end, his hand once again resting on his forehead. "Sasuke, Naruto is right. That clone technique is dangerous and shouldn't be taught to a genin, ever. Naruto really shouldn't know it right now, but learned it due to special circumstances. He has permission from the Hokage to use it."

"I don't care. He stole my jutsu! He has to give me something in return."

Kakashi sighed. "Sasuke. You should know better than most that a ninja's jutsu are only his own if he can keep them a secret from others. You showed your jutsu freely and your teammate learned it. Naruto also has a point – we're here to become better ninja. We should be sharing our knowledge with one another, not hording it away. When we start missions, we'll be depending on one another's strength to succeed. The stronger each of you is individually, the stronger we'll be as a team." He paused for a moment in thought. "I'm going to cancel our mission for today and we're going to do some training. Sasuke, Sakura, I want you to stay here while I put Naruto to work."

The Uchiha was still fuming, but Sakura gave a shallow nod of understanding.

"Come on, Naruto."

Together they walked along the bank of the river until they were about twenty feet from the other two. "Alright, Naruto. How are you feeling, chakra-wise?"

Naruto looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"I mean how tired do you feel? Do you have enough chakra for another of those jutsu?"

Naruto smiled and nodded. "I feel fine, sensei. Not tired at all."

Kakashi looked skeptical, but continued on. "Alright, I want you to use the Grand Fireball as many times as you can until you wear down your chakra. Don't exhaust yourself though. When you start feeling tired, head back over to where the rest of us will be, alright?" Seeing the enthusiastic nod Naruto gave him, he frowned slightly. "When I say stop when you feel tired, Naruto, I mean that. Ninja can kill themselves by overusing their chakra."

Naruto's head stilled and he took on a pensive expression before giving one last firm nod. "Alright, sensei. I'll be sure to stop if I start feeling tired."

"Good. Try working on making your hand seals faster while you're at it. If you want to be able to use this technique in battle, you're going to need to be quite a bit faster than you are." With that, he set off back towards his other students.

Naruto decided then and there that his first order of business would be to improve his sealing. Well, maybe second order of business. He still wanted to ask Kakashi about the earth move he had used.

Twenty minutes later, the jounin returned with look of supreme concentration in his one visible eye. Or at least that's what Naruto thought it was. "How many have you done, Naruto?"

"Uh, fourteen. Am I doing something wrong, sensei?"

Kakashi's eye widened. "You don't feel tired at all?"

Naruto crossed his arms in front of his chest and held his chin the in the palm of his hand as he pondered this. "A little, I guess. Probably."

Kakashi just stared at him.

"But I could keep going if…"

"No, that's enough for now, I think. Why don't you work on practicing your seals for a bit? No more jutsu for now, though."

"Okay, sounds good. Do you think you could teach me the earth technique you used on the bastard yesterday sometime?"

Kakashi sighed. "Most genin are lucky to be able to use techniques of even one chakra element. It's pretty much unheard of to be able to use two for someone so inexperienced. You're obviously a fire type, so there's really no point in me teaching you an earth jutsu."

It wasn't what Naruto wanted to hear. "How do you know that? I did Sasuke's move just fine."

"Work on your sealing for now, Naruto. We can talk about this later."

Naruto frowned, but supposed the man had a point. Better to have one jutsu he could actually fight with than two that he couldn't.

Just then, a thought crossed his mind and he pulled out the scroll he had been given by Konohamaru earlier. "Um, sensei?"

The older man turned around and gave the boy his attention.

"What the heck does 'proficiency in pedal tension and adhesion skills' mean?"

Kakashi raised his eyebrow. "What's on that scroll?"

Naruto blinked. "Oh, nothing important. It's just a jutsu scroll I'm borrowing from a friend."

It was an obvious lie, but the jounin let it go. The boy wouldn't be learning that for quite a bit of time. "Basically, that's the fancy way of saying that you have to be able to walk on walls and on top of water."

Naruto groaned. "What's with all of this long-winded crap? Who can understand it? Why the hell didn't they just write that instead?"

"Maybe so that genin wouldn't be able to figure it out and end up hurting themselves trying to learn it without supervision?"

"I'm just saying, it's no way to teach." Naruto's eyes went wide. "You did say walk on walls and on water, right?"

Kakashi nodded slowly. "Both are chuunin level skills, though we may start on them early since they're excellent chakra control exercises and damn useful abilities in a fight."

"Awesome!"

"Right. So… hand seals." Kakashi turned and gave a small wave over his shoulder before strolling back over to where Sasuke and Sakura were going through taijutsu forms.

It looked damn boring to Naruto.

Almost as boring as doing hand seals all afternoon.

* * *

Naruto was roused from slumber unceremoniously to a loud banging on his front door. Groggily, he opened his eyes only to shut them as sunlight streamed in through the crack in the curtains of his window.

His alarm hadn't gone off, but he frankly didn't care. He rolled over and went back to sleep.

Or attempted to. The banging was hindering his current plan of action, and it was becoming persistently louder and more rapid.

Resigning himself to fighting the intruder off, he rolled out of bed and shuffled slowly to the door to his small apartment, doing his best to tune out the intrusive noise.

He opened it a crack to look outside, but again recoiled at the abundance of damnable light.

Unfortunately, now that the door had been cracked, it seemed eager to open completely.

Or maybe it was the kunoichi pressing against the other side of it.

Naruto raised a hand to shield his eyes from the morning – he thought it was morning – sunlight. Also unfortunately, that lasted about a second and a half before a hand grabbed his arm and yanked it down from in front of him.

Naruto groaned.

The kunoichi screamed. Loudly. Right at him.

It was short, but the damage was already done.

"Okay, I'm awake now, what do you want?"

"N-Naruto? What happened to your eyes?"

He had to pull his pinky out of his ear, where he had been hoping to ease some of the sonic damage incurred by the outburst. "What?"

"What's wrong with your eyes?"

He frowned. He hadn't had time to put on his goggles before he answered the door. "Infection."

It was getting a bit tiresome telling that lie. At least he was fairly sure it was a lie. There had been no change whatsoever in the appearance of his eyes, and he hadn't felt any discomfort. He just didn't know what to do about his little problem and, if truth be told, didn't care to do anything about it. As far as he was concerned, they worked just fine. Don't fix it if it ain't broke. He'd heard one of the older villagers say it once, and it seemed like sound advice.

The man hadn't seemed to be trying to disseminate false wisdom to nosy jinchuuriki, anyway.

"You can't be serious. That doesn't look like any infection I've ever seen. Maybe you should go get them looked at."

"Look, Ino. Could we just drop it? I don't really want this getting out. It would only cause problems for me, ya know?"

"But…"

"They work just fine, I promise. So unless you can tell me what the hell happened to them, there's no point in talking about it any further, alright?"

She seemed ready to argue, but must have thought better of it. Then her eyes traveled up and down his body. She scowled. "Why the hell aren't you dressed?"

Naruto looked down at himself. He was wearing a navy blue pair of pajamas – the top of which he'd never bothered to button up the night before. Scratching his bare chest absently, he could only frown in confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Ino's scowl deepened, and Naruto began to get alarmed. He'd obviously forgotten something important. "What day is it? What time is it? Am I late for training? Why did they send you? I didn't set my alarm, and must of overslept. Damn!"

"Idiot. It's Saturday. New genin teams don't take missions today, remember? It's probably why you didn't set your alarm. And by the way, it's ten thirty and we're supposed to go shopping and I can't believe you forgot!"

Naruto cocked his head to the side at her outburst. "You were serious about that?"

That apparently wasn't the right thing to say, because Ino grabbed his ear painfully, spun him around, and pushed him towards the back of the apartment and his room – hard. It didn't help Naruto that she was bigger than he was, as pathetic as that sounded. Well, maybe not heavier, but certainly taller. It irked him.

"Nice hat, by the way."

Naruto stumbled into his room and tossed the aforementioned sleeping cap – which when donned, looked like some sort of creature trying to devour his head whole – onto the bed and began to remove his pajamas, replacing them with a clean pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

Well, maybe not completely clean, but pretty clean. He could put them up to his nose and inhale without gagging, at least.

Grabbing his goggles, he threw them on, collected his toad-styled wallet, and joined Ino in the kitchenette where she was amusing herself by wrinkling her nose at the messy state of affairs she found there.

"Hehe, sorry about the mess. Sorta forgot you were stopping by today. Anyways, shall we get a move on?"

Ino nodded and led the way, all too eager to leave the dirty apartment, while Naruto locked up behind them.

"So, where are we headed?"

"I know a nice shop that caters to shinobi – they sell more durable stuff, you know?"

"And where might this shop be?"

"Oh, just a few streets down."

Naruto was a bit nervous. It wasn't so bad that the vendors wouldn't sell him their wares – usually – but they certainly weren't happy about doing it. Frankly, he tried to go shopping as infrequently as he possibly could. He never did like the crowds. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad since Ino was with him. That or she wouldn't notice the stares.

A few minutes of walking and idle chitchat later – mostly talking about Ino's lazy teammate, Ino's constantly gorging teammate, and Ino's chain-smoking sensei – they reached their destination. It was a medium-sized shop with tinted windows and signs advertising shinobi wares. It looked decent enough.

Entering, Naruto followed Ino like a lost puppy as she strode about the store like some sort of human divining rod. Having no sense of fashion whatsoever, and knowing this, Naruto could only hope that she found something good.

"Did you really steal one of Sasuke's jutsu the other day?"

"What? Who told you about that?"

"Sakura, who else? So you did steal it, though?"

"I wouldn't call it that. He showed me how to do it and I just did it. Of course, he says that he was showing me just to show me, not so that I could use the jutsu too. Makes me think he wanted to rub it in my face, but I guess I got the last laugh, eh?" He neglected to mention that he had prodded Sasuke into showing the jutsu to him for the exact purpose of learning it himself. It would make him look like a bit of an ass, after all.

"So you learned a jutsu just by watching someone else do it one time?"

"Well, it was actually the second time I'd seen it, but pretty much."

"Huh." At this point she pulled a pair of black pants from a shelf and held them up in front of Naruto. "Black is your color. That or white, but dressing so light isn't the best idea for an ninja, you know?" She nodded distractedly to herself before pausing. "Oh wait, you don't know. That's why I'm here."

Naruto groaned. "You really think so? It's just so… dull."

"I really think so. Now do you like baggy, or tight?"

She looked to be going for the tight pants that she had indicated, so Naruto quickly spoke up. "Baggy. I like baggy."

Ino seemed reluctant to give in, but decided to acquiesce. It wasn't worth starting a fight over. Holding up the looser pair, she wrinkled her nose at the wide foot holes at the end of each pant leg. "You'll have to tape these, otherwise your cuffs will be flapping around all the time."

"Aw, I don't mind showing off a little ankle, Ino." He grinned widely at her, and a moment later she was fighting to suppress a smirk of her own.

"Okay, now for the top." For this, Ino led Naruto over to an area that held a wide variety of thin undershirts in a rainbow of colors. "Black again, definitely." It only took her a moment to pull out a shirt in his size. Stuffing it into his hands – where the pair of pants already rested – she guided him forcefully to the back of the store where the changing rooms were. "Well? Go throw them on and let's see how they look."

Naruto nodded and entered. Truthfully, he was a bit reluctant to finally retire his old orange jumpsuit, but it really was as much an eyesore as everyone had told him and only helped to make him stand out to the none too friendly villagers even more. Two minutes later, he emerged in his loose black pants and too-tight shirt. The pants were great – giving him full range of motion while being thick enough to hinder the odd kunai or shuriken attack. The shirt, however, was a different story. It was supposed to be tight he knew, as it was an undershirt, but was only a bit removed from the normal black T-shirts he was used to wearing under his orange jacket. It had no sleeves and the fabric transitioned to mesh just above his breast – reaching up to and over his shoulders and meeting in the back at his shoulderblades.

"I already have undershirts, Ino. This seems a bit excessive." Naruto stuck a finger through the mesh. "And what's with the holes?"

The kunoichi huffed. "It breathes better than a normal shirt. Helps keep you from overheating in a fight. Plus it looks good."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Breathes. Right. Got it. So what next?"

Ino smiled. "That's it. We're done."

The blond boy blinked. "Ino, this is an undershirt."

"Yeah, well, it makes for pretty good eye candy too, so I'd call it a success." The sly grin on her face made Naruto decided uncomfortable.

"Did you really just say that? What the hell are you talking about? I thought you were supposed to be helping me, not satisfying your perversions."

Ino's grin only widened. "Well you definitely weren't going to get a girlfriend wearing that ratty jumpsuit, and now you have a lot of ground to make up, so I figured we'd go full tilt."

Naruto palmed his forehead in a way reminiscent to Kakashi. "This isn't funny, Ino. I can't go around wearing just this."

Ino pouted a bit. "Well it doesn't look _that_ bad on you. I mean you've got that tan thing going for you."

Looking up, Naruto sighed. "Thanks for that, but I think it needs something else." He turned to scan the store for inspiration as Ino went back to bustling about. Then something caught his eye. "That."

Ino followed his arm to where he pointed to see a simple yet dignified black, long-sleeved gi with silvery-gray hems placed on a mannequin. "That's formal wear, Naruto. Though since it's ninja gear I guess it's probably sturdy enough to fight in…"

"I want it." It was everything Naruto could have wanted – loose, baggy in the arms, and – best of all – it fit into Ino's color scheme. Taking it down, he threw it on and knew it was for him. It was a bit loose in the shoulders and hung down to a few inches above his knees, but he could grow into it – or at least he hoped he would.

Ino studied him carefully as he turned to face her. "Well, I guess it works. And it doesn't look too bad either. Guess we'll just need to find a belt for it now."

"Nope, I have a better idea." Naruto was eyeing a pile of rope lengths that were made to be smooth and flexible – specifically to be used as part of traditional dress. Each was around six feet in length, with a decorative tassel on either end. He surprised Ino by grabbing five.

"Rope, Naruto? And what do you need five of those for?"

"You'll see, Ino. This is going to be so awesome."

It only took another two minutes for Naruto to don his shorts and T-shirt and fold up the new clothes. Ino insisted that he buy four sets of the gi and pants along with seven new undershirts. He thought it was a bit excessive, though Ino assured him it wasn't.

Did he really smell that bad? This was troubling.

They made their way to the front of the store, from where an old male clerk had been eyeing them shiftily since they entered the store.

"Just this." Now was the moment of truth, and Naruto hoped this guy wasn't going to give him trouble.

The man scowled down at him from behind the counter and began adding up their total, only…

"That's way more than those things were priced!" Ino had no problem voicing their sentiments.

"You must have read them wrong then, miss." The man didn't try to hold back his dislike for either of them, though focused more on Naruto, as expected.

This happened on rare occasions, and was generally why Naruto stuck to more familiar places when he had to buy anything. Sometimes the vindictive bastards would watch him take his time picking out whatever it was he wanted to buy, only to overcharge him exorbitantly or refuse him service after finding what he needed. It probably gave them a perverse sort of pleasure to mess with him. Now that he knew the reason for their dislike, though, he thought it incredibly rude to be so callous in front of a friend.

"That's the price. Take it or get out."

Ino looked to be somewhere between confused, hurt, and angry. She had no idea why they were being treated this way – in a store that she apparently frequented no less – and wasn't sure how to react.

Naruto's heart went out to her. It was a case of evil by association, apparently.

She didn't deserve that. It made him rather angry.

Then he had an idea. A wonderful, brilliant, wicked idea. Perhaps there were advantages to having people think that you're a ten-story demon from hell? Or at least that one had your back.

"Listen you miserable old bastard. Do you know what karma is?"

The man sneered at him. "Of course I do, but probably not so well as _you._"

Naruto leaned in close to the counter, his face twisted in anger. "The way I see it, you can sell some clothes to a twelve-year-old kid without robbing him blind now, or when your karma catches up with you, it can bite your ass hard – or swallow you whole." The man wanted to mess with him? Fine. But two can play at that game.

The man furrowed his brows in confusion, then widened in realization. Yes, the Kyuubi boy had just threatened to eat him.

"F-fine." He punched in the numbers quickly, eyes constantly flicking up to Naruto – probably checking to make sure that he wasn't getting impatient. Or hungry.

When the price came back, Ino's brows furrowed in confusion, but Naruto just pulled out his wallet and paid. The final cost was actually significantly less than what the clothes were priced at, but the man probably was willing to cut his losses just to get Naruto out of his store at this point.

As they walked out, Ino grabbed Naruto's shoulder and spun him around. "What was that all about?"

Naruto shrugged. "Can't tell you now. Maybe someday. It's a pretty messed up story, actually."

She obviously wasn't happy with his answer, but was apparently willing to set it aside after seeing the grim look on his face. "Oh, I almost forgot!" Quickly, she pulled a pair of glasses out of the shorts she was wearing – it was the weekend, after all – and handed them to Naruto.

"What's this?" It was a pair of glasses, alright. They had the same red tint that his current goggles had and sleek black frames. In fact, they were a bit of a sports-goggle sunglass hybrid, as far as he could tell. The lenses were large and, when worn, would wrap around the sides of the wearer's head a bit – most likely in order to allow him the full use of his peripheral vision. Naruto's goggles tended to give him tunnel vision, as they weren't really meant to be worn for anything but swimming – or maybe something else. He'd never thought to ask.

"New glasses, of course. You can't keep wearing those goggles with your new outfit, after all. They're green for God's sake."

"I really appreciate this, Ino, but these goggles were a present and I'd like to hang on to them."

"Idiot. Those glasses are a present too. I already bought them after all – when you were in the changing rooms – though the guy didn't seem like he really wanted to sell them to me." She trailed off looking thoughtful at the end, her mind clearly drawn back to the incident with the clerk.

"Damn. I guess you got me there." Quickly, he removed his goggles and slipped them into a pocket before putting the new glasses on. They were held in place on his head by a thin elastic strap that ran from the ends of the temples around the back of his head where it became lost in his blond locks. The range of vision was much better in these, and frankly they were more comfortable as well. "Thanks a bunch, Ino. These are really great."

"Consider those a present for all the present-giving holidays I may have neglected to get you anything for."

"Really? I've never gotten you anything either, Ino."

She put her finger to her lips in mock contemplation and hummed. "You know, you're right. How thoughtless can you get, Naruto?"

He rolled his eyes. "Come on, I'll get you lunch."

"As long as they serve salads."

"You know you're a kunoichi and not a model, right? You're supposed to be eating healthy so that you can get stronger, not starving yourself with that rabbit food."

"Like you're one to talk. From the way you used to go on and on about it, it seems like all you ever eat is ramen. Maybe it's stunted your growth."

Naruto flinched a bit. "Oh come on. I eat other things too. Sometimes."

Ino looked skeptical. "Whatever. There's a nice little place up here around the corner."

"Sure, sure."

"Don't start that Shikamaru crap with me, Naruto."

* * *

On his way home from lunch, Naruto stopped by a shop close to his apartment that he visited from time to time to buy patches and other implements to repair his clothes with, when he had to. Today, though, he only bought a bottle of dye. Orange, of course.

This was going to be awesome.

* * *

Sarutobi looked up as a soft knock sounded on the door of his office. It was nearing the end of the day and he was nearly done finalizing the documentation for the new genin teams.

He steadied himself for this conversation. He had a good idea of who was knocking.

"Come in."

The door opened about halfway before a short figure slipped through. Sarutobi's eyes widened a bit at the change in attire his young charge had chosen. He looked almost like an entirely different boy – golden hair aside. He was dressed in nearly all black – his loose gi lined with a shade of matte silver. He also sported a new pair of glasses that were a good deal more fashionable than his old goggles. His forehead protector was conspicuously absent from around his neck, but it was the boy's day off, after all.

What really caught his eye, though, was the rope belt tied around his waist to hold the gi closed over his chest – or rather the large, elaborate knot that rested on his left hip. It was dyed a bright orange color, and from it hung long, orange lengths that ended in tassels just below the boy's left knee. One. Two. Three. Four.

The boy turned his left side to the old Hokage as he shut the door.

Yep. There were nine of them. Nine lengths of that offensive orange the boy loved so much, hanging neatly down the side of his left leg.

Sarutobi suppressed a groan.

"What did you need, old man?"

"Naruto, what are you wearing?"

"Oh, this? You like it? Ino took me shopping for some new stuff today. It's a little bland, but otherwise pretty good, don't ya think?"

The Hokage smiled a bit at hearing that Naruto was finally connecting with some of his peers, but the glaringly orange ropes brought his attention back to the issue at hand. "I meant the rope, Naruto."

"Well, obviously, it's a rope. I like it better than a belt. That, and it's orange."

"Nine lengths, Naruto?"

The blond sighed. "It's not like anyone doesn't already know. They tread all over me like I'm not even a person, old man! This way, at least, they'll know that I know – that their words actually mean something. I'm just tired of taking their shit, old man. If they thought I was a monster then they wouldn't go around antagonizing me like I won't fight back, and if they thought I was a kid they wouldn't treat me like I'm something disgusting or evil. I just want them to remember who it is they're talking to."

The Hokage thought long and hard about Naruto's words. In his decades as the leader of this village, he'd made many mistakes. Naruto's life was just one of them. The people may have respected the letter of his law for the most part, but hardly any of them followed the spirit of it, or of the dying wish of their Fourth Hokage. The boy's life had been harsh for something he had no control over, and he made a good point – the people really were hypocrites. They took advantage of his helplessness with no repercussions, and it was high time it stopped.

If allowing Naruto to wear a reminder of just what his sacrifice – and the sacrifice of the Fourth Hokage - meant made the villagers even a bit more circumspect, he'd allow it. None of his methods had worked so far, and the boy was a ninja now. It was high time he started taking control of his own life.

Sarutobi would like to say that wearing such an obvious defining mark was a security risk, but he didn't fool himself into believing that anyone who mattered _didn't_ know what Naruto was. If even the most loose-lipped civilian knew that the boy was a jinchuuriki, then he could damn well bet the Tsuchikage knew it all the way in Rock Country by October the eleventh those twelve long years ago.

"Alright, Naruto. I suppose I'll let you wear it. But that's not why I called you here."

Naruto grinned, but his expression sobered as the look on the Hokage's face turned grave.

"Did you threaten one of the shopkeepers at an outfitter market today?"

Naruto frowned. "He was trying to rob me, old man, with Ino standing right there! All I said was that treating a twelve-year-old kid like shit might come back to bite him in the ass someday."

"He said you threatened to eat him."

The blond didn't speak, but slowly a grin spread across his face until it split wide in raucous laughter. The old man didn't think it particularly funny, until he went back over what he'd just said. Then, despite his best efforts, he joined the boy in a long chuckle.

Naruto finally got a hold of himself. "I promise I won't eat anyone, old man. Especially not a saggy old sourpuss like that bastard."

The Hokage settled and regained a serious demeanor. "Naruto, you can't go around threatening citizens, especially now that you're a ninja of the village. You should know better."

The boy's grin fell. The old man really did look disappointed. "I understand, old man. I won't do it again, and I apologize."

"I want you to know that I understand why you did it, Naruto. You're a ninja now though – an adult in the eyes of the village – and sometimes you'll have to be the one to act like an adult even if the one giving you trouble is older than you are. Not all men grow wise. Sometimes they just grow bitter. Try to remember that."

"Alright, old man. Is that all?"

"That's all, Naruto. Good luck with your training this week, and hopefully I'll see you again for another mission soon."

The boy nodded and walked out, pausing only when the old Hokage's voice reached him as he exited.

"Remember that my door is always open to you, Naruto."

The boy waved and was gone.

Sarutobi returned to his thoughts. The boy was changing – maturing. Maybe even a little too fast for the Hokage's liking.

What could he expect, though, when so much responsibility was set at his feet in so short a time?

Now he was truly glad that he hadn't revealed the rest of the story to Naruto, though he knew he couldn't keep it a secret for long. The boy was strangely perceptive at times.

Just like his father had been.


	4. Feels Like The First Time

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **1/13/09

**Chapter Title: **_Feels Like The First Time_ by Foreigner

* * *

"Why the hell is everyone acting like we've got the plague?"

Naruto hated the man already. It hadn't taken him more than ten minutes to insult the boy's height, his red-tinted glasses, and worst of all, his super snazzy orange rope belt.

"It's not every day that they get to see a shameless pervert _and_ a stumbling drunk at the same time, I guess." Naruto knew the real reason for the scathing glares, but he was in a foul mood as it was and found himself all too happy to take any opportunity he could find to reciprocate against their newly acquired "client" for his earlier insults. When he had begged the old man for a better mission than babysitting some spoiled brat, he hadn't expected to be stuck with _this._

Really, what was the difference?

Kakashi gave him a warning glance as they continued down the street. The jounin had made it perfectly clear that he didn't approve of Naruto's new colorful accessory – though the rest of the boy's attire was better than the alternative, he supposed. Still, the Hokage had given the blonde permission to wear the thing during ninja duties and that was that.

"Maybe they're just violently allergic to annoying midgets? God knows the sight of you makes even _me_ ill, and I have an eight year old grandson."

Naruto grit his teeth. "I so hope you die."

"What would happen, exactly – and I'm talking theoretically here, of course – if our client were to be accidentally stabbed in the face by a poorly thrown kunai during a mission, sensei?"

Kakashi's visible eye found Naruto's frowning face, which was currently trained on the loud drunk walking slowly on the road ahead of him. "Well, we wouldn't be paid for the mission, for starters."

Naruto gave a tight nod, his eyes still locked on the back of the drunk's head. That was fairly obvious.

"We'd have a demerit put in our mission file for failing to complete our assignment."

Another nod. That was also obvious.

"We may be subject to disciplinary action, demotion, or even dismissal from the ninja forces."

Naruto kept walking, but took on a thoughtful expression.

"And our reputation within the village would likely fall, along with the village's prestige as a whole were our mission significant enough."

The blonde snorted at that, then seemed to come to a decision. He ran ahead of the group and down the dirt road nearly thirty feet, finally turning around to face the rest of their small procession. He never gave the small puddle in the road a second glance. "Hey bastard, up for a game of catch?"

Sasuke's brows furrowed in confusion as Naruto withdrew a kunai from within his loose gi and flipped it casually in his hand.

The old man – Tazuna – shuffled a bit closer to Kakashi and away from the dark-haired Uchiha, mumbling all the while about unhinged midget ninja brats.

The jounin could only sigh. "That's enough of that, I think." The main group had just passed the conspicuous puddle without incident – which only meant that the ninja lurking within was smart enough not to waste the element of surprise on a genin.

Naruto had stopped walking to allow the rest of the group to catch up to him, but was still a good twenty feet up the road from his teammates and client – Kakashi taking up the rear of the procession.

At first the blonde thought that his new creepy eyes were making him see things – well, _other_ things – but after only a moment he realized that there were indeed two armored and raggedly-clothed ninja rising out of the ground just behind his oblivious sensei – a wicked-looking, bladed chain strung between their equally wicked-looking clawed gauntlets.

"Behind you, sensei!"

At first it seemed that his warning had come too late, but Naruto found himself silently thanking the Kyuubi for the changes it had wrought in him as he saw the telltale white aura jump to life around his teacher.

The man had managed a replacement before the chain had snagged him.

Had Naruto not seen this, he might have frozen in horror as both Sakura and Tazuna had done. Instead, his mind demanded a quick response to the appearance of the hostile targets. He pulled out a brace of three kunai from within his gi and jumped as high as he could into the air, releasing the projectiles towards the two men as they charged Tazuna down. The kunai whizzed over the heads of his teammates and towards the attacking ninja, who dodged easily by jumping apart – their sinister chain swinging like some sick jump rope of death between them.

Naruto landed and ran towards his team as quickly as possible in case they needed more help before Kakashi decided to put in an appearance, but found that his assistance wasn't required.

Sasuke had managed to pin the enemy ninja's long chain to a tree, which held them up until they thought to abandon it. In that time, Sakura had regained her senses – sort of –and jumped in front of Tazuna to act as a poor man's meat shield.

Luckily, their wayward jounin jumped into action before her claw-stopping effectiveness was put to the test and caught both hostile men in headlocks – which actually caused Naruto to wince, given that the one heading towards Sasuke was dragged a good fifteen feet by his neck to where his partner was caught while trying to eviscerate their team's kunoichi.

And that was it, really.

The whole exchange had lasted about seven seconds.

Naruto found himself a bit stunned by this revelation. Had he actually been in the thick of the combat, he may have experienced things differently. As removed as he was, however, it all seemed so fast.

Those ninja had been defeated so simply – in the blink of an eye, really.

He would later learn that they were notable chuunin missing ninja from Kiri.

To the famous Hatake Kakashi though, they were nobodies.

* * *

"You appear to be Sharingan Kakashi. Sorry, but the old man is mine."

"Surround and protect Tazuna. Don't enter the fight. That's the teamwork here."

They were in Wave Country now, facing down another rogue Kiri ninja. Naruto would say that it was exhilarating if it didn't mean he had a damn good chance of dying.

Then again, where was the fun without a little risk?

He watched closely as Kakashi grabbed his forehead protector and slid it up to rest properly across his brow. Naruto gave an internal cheer to find an even creepier eye than his resting there – a red eye, with what looked like three oddly-shaped black marks spaced evenly around a normal pupil in its center.

Now that looked a bit more like an infection.

"So, what's a Sharingan?"

"Sharingan…" Sasuke seemed to have lost his normally aloof and stoic demeanor as shock and confusion took hold. "It is said that some have the ability in their eyes to read and defeat all types of gen, tai, and ninjutsu. The Sharingan is one of the types of pupil that gives you this power."

Now he had Naruto's attention. Though he certainly wasn't able to defeat all types of ninja abilities – as he was reminded daily in his taijutsu spars against Kakashi – it did give a bit of an explanation as to why his eyes had gone all funny one night, causing him to see all sorts of shapes and colors whenever a ninjutsu went off nearby.

Apparently this Sharingan had the ability to copy a ninjutsu just by seeing it once. It reminded Naruto of what he'd done when learning the Grand Fireball. But he hadn't really copied it.

Hell no.

He'd learned it… just really, really fast. After all, he did have to pay close attention to everything, right?

Sasuke was still eyeing Kakashi mistrustfully, though Naruto had no idea why. Their sensei was apparently a major bad ass according to this missing nin, but the revelation shouldn't really have elicited that sort of response from the Uchiha.

He'd have to ask about it later – if he survived this, that is.

The missing nin – Momochi Zabuza – had jumped onto the lake beside the road that their party had been following and took an odd stance – his right hand forming half a seal in front of him and his left pointing strait into the air above him – index and middle fingers extended towards the heavens.

Naruto watched carefully for what he knew would happen next, and sure enough Zabuza's body was engulfed in a layer of deep blue that seemed to flow slowly around his form. Water.

Mist rose from the lake and the area was blanketed in a vapor too thick for their eyes to penetrate.

Kakashi offered reassuring words.

Zabuza offered to kill them eight different ways.

Naruto thought he may have seen a few flashes of deep blue from within the fog, but couldn't be sure. He was more concerned with the massive killing intent being leveled on him by the master assassin from the Mist village. It was more intense than anything he'd ever felt before, but he could bare it.

After all, he had experience with this sort of thing. His two teammates, however, were shaking in their sandals. Feeling Sasuke withering beside him gave him a grim sense of pleasure that he had to forcefully push aside. Now wasn't the time to be gloating.

And then the man was among them.

Naruto didn't have time to properly process all that went on. Kakashi and Zabuza seemed to be in a race to see who could slaughter the most water clones in the least amount of time – clones that Naruto had no idea had even been made until they were ripped apart by flashing kunai and the enormous blade wielded by the Kiri ninja.

He was truly helpless, and it made him sick. It was something he meant to correct as soon as possible.

But now Kakashi was caught in a jutsu Naruto had barely noticed the bandaged assassin perform, and another of the shirtless man's water clones had risen from the lake to finish them off.

"Run away! This fight was over the moment I was caught. Take Tazuna and leave. His clones can't maintain themselves far from the original."

"And how will you get away, sensei?" Naruto didn't like the idea of them striking off on their own with the old drunk in tow. He didn't want Kakashi to die here, and he needed assurances that that wouldn't be the jounin's fate if they left him. He also didn't like the idea of being on the run from this sociopath with just his genin teammates to lean on.

"I'll think of something. Just go!"

Naruto didn't even realize that he had been attacked until he found himself lying on his back, ten feet from where he'd been standing. His chest ached in pain from the man's kick. Thankfully, even the rogue ninja wasn't willing to hit a man wearing glasses in the face.

"Dammit, that hurt." Naruto rolled over and slowly stood as he assessed the damage. It actually wasn't that bad. He spared a glance to his two teammates to find Sakura shaking like a leaf, while Sasuke threw worried glances between Kakashi, the water clone, and Naruto in indecision.

It was up to him, then.

"You little brats think that you're ninja? Once you make your way into my Bingo Book, then you can have the title. Until then, you're just pretenders."

Naruto frowned deeply at the assassin's words. A pretender? He really was a pretender, wasn't he? Up until a month ago he'd been shaving his life away trying to please everyone around him. He hardly knew himself anymore, and was just now beginning to find that person once again.

Or maybe he'd never known him.

Well fuck Momochi Zabuza and fuck every other person who wanted him to be something other than what he was. He wasn't going to pretend anymore.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the tall water clone as determination settled over him. "You can thank me later, Sasuke."

The clone's eyes widened as the boy flashed through a short series of hand seals before exhaling deeply. It didn't even have time to comprehend its destruction before flame engulfed it and it disappeared in a burst of hot steam.

The two immobile jounin watched on in mounting horror as the enormous fireball continued to race towards them – flames licking up angry spray from the lake's surface as it came.

"What the…"

"Fuck."

* * *

"Oh, you're awake, sensei."

Kakashi groaned and tried to sit up, but found himself too weak to move. "Naruto? Where are we?"

The blonde sat on the floor next to Kakashi, who was laid out on a soft futon. "After you passed out, we dragged your heavy ass to the old drunk's place. You've been unconscious for a few hours."

The jounin groaned again. "I should beat the tar out of you for that stunt you pulled. Never, never do that again."

"Hey, it worked, didn't it? At least you had a nice water shield, right?"

Kakashi sighed. "He dropped his water prison right before your jutsu hit us. I only had an instant to get under the water."

"What, I can't have a little faith in my teacher? It's not like I had much choice, either." Naruto's face split into a mischievous grin. "But did you see the look on his face?" He put a hand to his chin in thought. "Actually, both of you looked damn funny when you got out of the water."

"Right." That was enough of that. On to more important issues. "Where are Sasuke and Sakura?"

"I think Sakura is downstairs with Tsunami. The bastard went somewhere to brood, most likely."

Kakashi's visible eye found Naruto's. "Could you go get them please? There's something we need to discuss."

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, but could I ask you a question about your eye thingy?"

The man lifted an eyebrow at that. "My Sharingan?"

"Yeah, that. How'd you get it?"

Naruto was excited to finally get some answers. If his eyes were anything like this Sharingan, then maybe Kakashi could teach him how to use them. Or why he got them, exactly. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure that Kyuubi had been involved at all – the old man had only assumed as such. If this was something unrelated, then Naruto wanted to know about it, and quickly.

Kakashi grew silent and stared up at the ceiling quietly, his unfocused eyes recalling painful memories. Just as Naruto began to grow impatient, he spoke. "I lost my left eye in the Third Great War. The Sharingan I have was transplanted into me as a replacement."

"But who's Sharingan was it? How did they get it?"

The older man blinked as he was torn from his reminiscing. "It's a bloodline limit of the Uchiha clan. It manifests itself in certain members when they unlock its powers."

"So your eye belonged to an Uchiha?" Naruto blinked as realization hit him. "Does that mean that Sasuke is going to get the Sharingan?"

"Well, not every Uchiha develops the Sharingan, but I'd say there's a decent chance of it."

That answered the first question. These special eyes were apparently inherited through blood.

"Are there any other special eyes besides the Sharingan?" Naruto was incredibly hopeful. If he had a bloodline limit, then he would have an advantage over almost every other ninja he would come across.

Then another realization hit him.

If an eye technique like his was inherited, did that mean there was a whole clan somewhere with the same ability? Could he have a family eagerly awaiting his return? Naruto had never given his origins much thought, but couldn't help but envy his peers for the care and support their families gave them. He could definitely see himself having something like that.

"Well, there's the Byakugan of the Hyuuga clan. I'm sure you've seen them around Konoha before."

Come to think of it, hadn't Teuchi told him that the Hyuuga clan had those eerie white eyes? "Any more?"

Kakashi shook his head. "No. Those are the only two you'll find in the ninja world – as far as I know."

Naruto nodded slowly. What did that mean? That he didn't have an eye technique? Then how could he explain their change in appearance or the ability to see something – chakra, he supposed, since it happened right before someone used a ninjutsu – that no one else could?

"Um, so how do you use your Sharingan? What does it do, exactly?"

The older jounin turned his head to look at Naruto closely. This conversation was slowly but surely leading to topics that quite frankly worried the man. "Why the sudden interest, Naruto?" Ninja had been attempting to learn the secrets of – or outright steal, in some cases – the doujutsu of the Uchiha and Hyuuga clans for as long as they'd possessed them. Though it seemed incredibly unlikely, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder if the village pariah was thinking along similar lines. If the boy had a doujutsu of his own then that would be one thing, but Kakashi had known Naruto's parents and – as far as he was aware – neither had had a drop of Uchiha or Hyuuga blood in their veins.

It was troubling.

Naruto considered taking off his glasses and showing the man exactly what he was dealing with, but Kakashi had just outright told him that there were no doujutsu like his in the world. He'd only known the man for a little over a month, and though the jounin seemed to be an alright guy – though aloof – the blonde wasn't yet comfortable enough to divulge something so personal to him yet. Maybe the old man, but not Kakashi.

What would happen if the man thought that the Kyuubi was doing something to him? He couldn't risk it. He knew he'd been pushing his luck around his sensei, and didn't want to do anything to set him off.

After all, if Naruto were in Kakashi's place, he'd probably kill his charge before letting the demon escape to run free once again.

And wasn't that a pleasant thought?

"I was just curious, sensei. I've never seen something as cool as that before. Are their other, uh, bloodline limits besides the Sharingan and the… the other one?"

Kakashi seemed satisfied with that response for now. "Those are the only two in Konoha these days, but there are certainly others throughout the ninja world."

The jounin seemed keen on ending the conversation there, but Naruto still hadn't gotten an answer about _how_ the Sharingan worked. He'd give it just one more try. "So your Sharingan, is it on all the time?"

Kakashi appraised him for moment before answering. Maybe he could nip any unsavory thoughts of organ trafficking in the bud. "Mine is, though it really shouldn't be. Since I have no Uchiha blood in me, my Sharingan doesn't work quite right. A true-blooded Uchiha can turn his bloodline limit off and on at will just by channeling chakra to his eyes, but I have to keep it covered or it will constantly leech my chakra. It's very inefficient in a non-Uchiha, and it's the reason why I collapsed after fighting Zabuza. If I use the Sharingan's power too long, it exhausts my chakra reserves. Sometimes I think it's more of a hindrance than a help, really."

Naruto nodded slowly. That had been enlightening. Apparently a bloodline limit like the Sharingan worked by channeling chakra to the eyes to activate it. But he wasn't channeling chakra to his eyes, was he? He still saw things though, right? On top of that, his eyes were always strange looking, just like Kakashi's Sharingan eye. Did that mean his eyes were always active?

There was only one real way to find out. Naruto concentrated on his chakra flow. He couldn't make a seal in front of Kakashi in order to help the process along without the man getting suspicious, but maybe he could do it without that assistance. He closed his eyes in concentration behind his tinted lenses and pushed his chakra to the mercury orbs.

It was a strange sensation at first – feeling chakra run so strongly through his eyes – but after a moment he thought it might have worked. And sure enough, when he opened his eyes he found that Kakashi – and the whole world for that matter – did look differently. Instead of the normal sight of his sensei, Naruto found that the man's entire body had taken on a pale white glow – not unlike the bright aura that he exuded before using a jutsu, but much less intense. On top of that, all of the ambient light in the room had gone dark – as though the only thing that provided light was the strange glow emanating from his sensei. He was seeing the world in black and… colors, he supposed.

Naruto felt exhilaration rush through him. He _did_ have a special eye technique. He must have. Looking down at himself, he found the golden yellow light of his own aura dancing through his body. Once again, it was much less bright than he remembered seeing when experimenting with his clones, but the color was the same.

He supposed that this proved that each person had a unique aura – or something like that.

"…get Sasuke and Sakura up here. We still have an important discussion ahead of us."

Naruto was shaken out of his musings at the sound of Kakashi's voice. He allowed the chakra flowing to his eyes to die down and found that his vision returned to normal. He actually could control the usage of his eyes, it seemed. "Right, let me go grab them, sensei."

The blonde jumped to his feet and rushed out of the room. Instead of racing downstairs to find his absent teammates though, he took an early turn into an upstairs bedroom and threw the door shut behind him, taking time to lock it securely. He wanted to see what his new eyes looked like.

Quickly he created a clone, which stared him in the face intently. He then focused once more, sending his chakra flowing up to his eyes. The clone nodded in approval and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Naruto blinked as he received the clone's observations. His eyes hadn't spun or changed color. They hadn't bulged out or altered their design. Instead, the small pupil that rested at the center of his mercury pools had simply expanded to fill in the smallest ring in each eye with inky blackness.

At least it was something.

* * *

"Chakra is a combination of body energy – which is produced by every cell in the human body – and spiritual energy – which we gain through knowledge and experience."

"Very good, Sakura. So what I want the three of you to do is mold chakra to your feet and use it to stick to the trunk of the tree as you run up. Not only is this a useful skill for a ninja to possess, but it's also excellent chakra control and stamina conditioning." Kakashi hung impossibly from the bottom of a thick tree branch twenty feet above the genin's heads, supported only by the soles of his sandals.

Well, not really.

Naruto could see the white aura that his teacher possessed soaking into the wood of the branch and keeping him secured to it. He found that being able to see the aura at work sure as hell beat shitty lectures. The blonde still paid close attention to Sakura's regurgitation of the academy lesson though. He wanted to make sure he knew what he was seeing, after all.

The obvious answer would have been plain old chakra, but Naruto wasn't so sure about that. Chakra didn't really explain the different _intents_ he saw when a ninjutsu was used. He'd managed to bug Kakashi a little more about the Sharingan – on the pretense that as members of the same team they should be aware of one another's capabilities, hypocritical as that was – and found that the Sharingan could indeed see chakra in a ninja's body – but only in a general way. He could measure chakra reserves with it and tell when his opponent was nearly spent, but that was about it. When Naruto pressed on about how it copied, Kakashi told him that it could mimic hand seals and the molding of chakra quite easily, but could never truly predict or explain just what jutsu it might be aping.

That's where the ninja's own smarts and experience came in.

To Naruto, it seemed that his eyes did something fundamentally different than Kakashi's Sharingan did. It was like he could see the intention of the technique, but not the actual application.

But if he wasn't seeing the chakra outright, then what was he seeing?

His curiosity had forced him to pay attention to Sakura's lecture today, and as a result, he thought that he might have actually stumbled upon the answer.

Spiritual energy.

It was the energy created by the mind to form and guide the chakra into whatever technique was to be used. It would certainly explain why he could tell what each technique he saw was trying to accomplish and how it was focused.

It also explained why the auras of the people around him were so dim when they weren't actually using ninjutsu. Though all humans produced chakra naturally to sustain their bodies, this was done subconsciously and therefore didn't contain much of a mental element to it. Ninja produced much more chakra than untrained civilians, so their spiritual auras were visible even when they were not using their chakra intentionally. When Naruto turned his gaze on Tazuna, Tsunami, or the little mouse the drunk had called his grandson, however, he could barely make out any aura at all.

It seemed like the best explanation. For now at least.

It also seemed that – despite Kakashi's words on the matter – Naruto did indeed have an eye technique – one that was possibly unknown in the ninja world.

That was sort of cool.

"Use these kunai to mark how far you get up the tree on each attempt. I don't expect you to get this right away, so you might want to use a running start to give you a little boost at the beginning." Kakashi watched impassively as his three students removed the sharp implements from the soft ground before them and spread out to pick their trees. He was interested to see how well each of them would do with this assignment.

Naruto moved over to his own tree, but paused before starting. He'd been having some success lately by watching others, so why not see how his teammates were faring before he made a fool out of himself?

Sasuke was the first to attempt it. Naruto looked on – his eyes powered up and watching intently – as the Uchiha dashed towards the tree and up its side. He made it about five paces up before Naruto saw a surge of his energy saturate the bark.

The bark blew away from the tree where the dark haired boy had stepped and – after a well-executed flip – Sasuke landed gracefully on the forest floor.

It occurred to Naruto that perhaps pumping so much energy into the wood had a detrimental effect. After all, the poor tree could probably only take so much foreign chakra being stuffed into it before something had to give.

Sakura was next to go. She formed a hand seal and forced her energy to her feet as Naruto watched on. Her aura was a pleasant teal – the same color as her eyes, now that he thought about it. Unlike Sasuke, Sakura made it all the way up to the lowest-hanging branch of the tree, where she stopped and sat – her legs dangling over the side – to smile down at them.

"How was that, sensei?" She was rewarded by Kakashi's happy eye angled up at her.

"Nice job, Sakura! You seem like a natural!" Naruto was honestly impressed. He wondered how she had gotten such good chakra control, considering that he rarely recalled seeing her train and didn't think that studying from a book counted as a control exercise.

She gave him a small smile before turning to Sasuke, who was staring at his tree with a quiet intensity. "What did you think, Sasuke? I did well, right?"

The boy didn't even spare her a glance, though he did grunt – or something of that nature.

"Well, were you going to give it a try, Naruto, or just stand around all morning?"

Naruto turned to see Kakashi staring at him expectantly. "I just wanted to see what it was supposed to look like before I busted my ass falling out of a tree. Give me a second."

The blonde was pretty sure as to what needed to happen here. Like Sakura and Kakashi, he needed to infuse the wood with a small bit of his chakra in order to make him stick. Use too much, and the wood would break apart as it had with Sasuke. Use too little, and he wouldn't stick at all. That part was fairly obvious.

He walked up to his tree and placed his right foot on the bark's surface, perpendicular to the ground.

"You might want to take a running start, Naruto."

The blond shook his head. "I want to see if I can at least stick to it first." Concentrating on his feet and the idea of "stickiness," Naruto sent his chakra into the tree until it seemed he had found the right amount from his observations of Sakura and Kakashi. Carefully, he tried to pull his foot away from the bark without lessening the chakra flow, only to find that it was firmly stuck.

Naruto grinned.

He slowly lifted his left foot from the ground and placed it on the tree above his right foot, making sure to focus chakra to both feet in order to maintain the adhesion. Then he lessened the chakra to his right foot and felt it come loose. Again, he put his free foot further up the tree and repeated the process.

It was slow going, but after about two minutes of constantly increasing his speed he'd managed to reach the same level as Sakura. He carefully spun on his heel – still sticking to the bark – and found himself facing down to the forest below him where Kakashi and Sasuke were staring up at him in shock.

Sasuke looked away immediately, his gaze focused once again on his own tree. A moment later and he had rushed at it again, this time making it six steps up. Naruto watched him frown and continue on, desperate to reach his two teammates.

Kakashi had an intense look in his eye as he appraised the blonde. "That was quite unexpected, Naruto. Well done."

Naruto scowled. "And why the hell wouldn't I be able to do this when Sakura could, huh?"

"Well, you have a good deal more chakra than Sakura does, so normally it should be harder for you to control it. Sakura has a relatively small reserve at the moment, so she'll naturally be working on her stamina instead of control."

"Oh." Maybe he had gotten upset over nothing, but it really pissed him off when people thought so little of him, no matter how deserving he was of his reputation.

Kakashi seemed to become lost in his thoughts for a moment, before finally speaking again. "I wasn't really expecting even one of you to get this so quickly, but here's what we'll do. Sakura, I want you to protect Tazuna at the bridge for the next few days. While you're there I'd like you to continue this exercise in order to increase your reserves a bit."

Sakura nodded, happy to earn some praise from her teacher – a man who so far hadn't been overly wowed by her textbook knowledge.

"Sasuke, you can stay here and work on completing this exercise. Remember to keep marking your progress with the kunai I gave you, and turn in before you burn out your chakra. We don't need you passing out in the forest here or hurting yourself."

The Uchiha barely gave a nod of assent as he continued to mercilessly pound up the tree.

"Naruto, I want you to come with me for a bit. We can work on your taijutsu or your clone tactics."

"Oh! Can we do the Body Flicker? I can do the wall walking thing now, right?"

Kakashi actually seemed to consider it. "Why don't we decide what to do when we find a new training ground? Alright kids, I'll see you at Tazuna's home for dinner tonight. Come on, Naruto."

Neither the jinchuuriki nor the jounin noticed the scowl that pulled at Sasuke's face as they left.

Kakashi had made Naruto run up and down a tree at full speed for nearly ten minutes to make sure that he really did have the skill mastered. It was rather unbelievable that a boy with so much chakra could have brought it under control so quickly, but the results were telling.

Perhaps some of the genius in Naruto's blood was beginning to show through? As a matter of fact – with that thought at the forefront of his mind – the jounin didn't really have any business doubting the small boy's abilities or potential.

"I know that you want to learn some new techniques, Naruto, but your taijutsu really sucks. It's not much good to be able to make a dozen clones if none of them are any good in a fight?"

Naruto was about to argue, but the jounin raised a hand to cut him off.

"I know that it isn't your fault. You probably didn't receive much attention-" Naruto snorted "-or proper instruction in the academy, so we have that to rectify. I also want you to put what you've learned today to use to help you increase your speed and power by flowing chakra through your body appropriately while fighting. This is the fundamental skill of high level taijutsu."

The blonde nodded. "Are we going to be able to work on the Body Flicker though? I know that I need to learn water walking first, but there's plenty of water here, right? Oh! And that earth jutsu you used against Sasuke back during the bell test! You told me you'd show it to me sometime. Well, how about now?"

Kakashi sighed. At least his student was eager to learn. Asuma had gone on and on about how difficult it was to motivate his team at times, what with both the Nara and Akimichi boy on it. "I really don't think you'll have much success with it Naruto, and before you even begin to learn that jutsu you'll have to master the Subterranean Voyage technique just to move underground. I know how exciting learning new techniques can be, believe me, but you'll benefit more by focusing on your weaknesses right now than using energy trying to expand your repertoire. You were lucky at the lake that Zabuza didn't expect that jutsu from you, otherwise he'd never have given you the time to use it."

He had a point. Naruto hadn't been able to do anything when the water clone had first attacked him. But still… "Could you tell one of my clones about the earth jutsu while I train? I'll remember it then, right?"

The older man gave up. "Alright. I'll explain it to you, but I can't show you in my current condition. I suppose you can work on it a bit with your clones while you spar with them. On that note, you can probably do the same with learning the water walking technique. You already have the basics from wall walking, so you should be able to figure it out – though it is a bit more difficult." He stopped his musings and focused intently on Naruto. "Listen, Naruto. I won't be able to sit around with you to help all week. I need to recover as quickly as possible, so it will mostly be up to you to improve. I want you to work hard, because Zabuza isn't going to give us a second chance to screw up the next time we see him. I don't think he was too happy about that Grand Fireball, either."

Naruto nodded eagerly. "I understand, sensei. I won't let you down."

"Good. Now make a few clones and send one over to see me about the Subterranean Voyage jutsu. After I finish with that, I'm going to give some pointers to Sasuke and take a nap. I'll see you at dinner tonight."

The boy formed a cross seal in front of him, and a moment later twenty-five Naruto's stood in the wooded clearing.

Kakashi placed his palm to his forehead and gave a long-suffering sigh. "And Naruto, please don't push yourself too hard. I don't need you collapsing, either."

"You don't have to worry about me, sensei."

The jounin turned and began to limp away to one side of the clearing on his crutches before he was stopped by Naruto's call. "Do you think my clones could figure out the water walking thing on their own? I'll learn whatever they find out, right?"

Kakashi blinked. "I suppose they could, yes. But if they make any progress, make sure that you can actually do it on your own, as well. You wouldn't want to learn that you were mistaken about your skills in the middle of a fight."

"Sure thing, sensei."

The injured man shook his head in amusement. He didn't know if any of Naruto's current schemes would pan out for him – in fact he thought that they probably wouldn't – but this was the same boy who had stolen the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing and learned the restricted Mass Shadow Clone jutsu in only a few hours.

Truly, he was intrigued to see how far this boy would go.

Now he just had to go make sure that Sasuke was making some progress and dealing with his apparent lack of success. Luckily he knew just how to deal with his type. The boy was frighteningly similar to himself, after all.

* * *

"You do realize that we're only here because your drunk-off-his-ass grandpa paid us to be, right?"

"Naruto! Leave him alone."

The blonde turned to his pink-haired teammate with an eyebrow raised. "What? I just don't think it makes much sense for a kid to be trying to talk the only four people standing between his family and a psychotic butcher into running out of town. Do _you_ want to die, kid?"

When the old drunk had told Naruto he had an eight-year-old grandson, the boy had expected someone akin to Konohamaru running around driving him nuts. This kid was possibly the most depressing person that Naruto had ever met, and he didn't want any part of the boy's pessimism or his sob story. Sure, the boy had had a rough life since Gatou showed up, but it was nothing compared to the nearly thirteen years of misery, solitude, and hatred that Naruto had lived through.

At least this brat had a mother and grandfather who cared about him – loved him even. Naruto had just managed to pass that number of individuals who gave even two shits about his life.

You didn't see him bitching and moaning to every person he saw.

"You can't beat Gatou. You'll only die."

"What a nice thing to say right in front of your grandfather, kid. You realize that he's trying to fight Gatou too, right? That's the whole point of his bridge. He's working out there every day trying to help the people of this country, and has to come home to this? I have no idea why he even keeps it up."

The small boy – Inari – stared at Naruto, then at his grandpa, then at his mother. Then he fled up the stairs. The adults at the table looked uncomfortable, Sakura looked angry, and Sasuke, as usual, was indifferent to everything not involving himself or his "ambition." Naruto wondered if he had even paid attention to the exchange.

"Naruto!"

"I don't want to hear it, Sakura. I don't have to sit here and listen to that boy tell me that I'm destined for failure. Sorry, it's just not in the job description, and unlike back home, I don't have to sit here and take it." He got up and left. Maybe the cool evening breeze and pearly moonlight would calm him a bit. Thankfully he could still see through the darkness, given that his glasses were only meant to dim the glare of the daytime sun and not block out the light.

He sat on the roof of Tazuna's home, watching the moon reflect off of the surf and listening to the gentle lapping of the waves against the wooden pylons that held the structure above the murky water. It was so different from Konoha – all that water stretching out ahead of him, reaching out to places unknown.

He liked it.

Despite all of the danger and anxiety this mission had brought, Naruto couldn't help but enjoy his time away from the village. There were no disapproving stares or rude gestures. No mothers herding their children away from the "demon brat" or shopkeepers trying to scalp him.

He could be a different person here. Not the one they thought he was, but the one he wanted to be.

The sound of light footsteps reeled back his wandering thoughts.

"You didn't have to do that, Naruto."

He was surprised to find his pink haired teammate standing next to him. He didn't respond right away, and was even more taken aback when she sat next to him on the roof, overlooking the surf below.

"You didn't need to say those things."

He turned back to look out over the glistening water. "No, I didn't. But I wanted to. That brat… he doesn't have any respect for what his grandfather's trying to do. Every day he spits in the face of the man who loves him the most with thoughts like that."

"He's only a kid."

"So what? We're only kids too. I still know better."

Sakura didn't respond for a time. They must have sat there for a good ten minutes, just taking in the calming sounds of the waves below them, when she again broke the silence. "What happened to you, Naruto? You used to be so…"

The blonde practically snarled. "So what? So stupid? So annoying? So useless? I'm tired of people looking at me like I'm something ugly that got on their shoe!"

"So happy."

Naruto stiffened. He hadn't been expecting that. Had he really been happy? "No."

Sakura turned to him in confusion. "No?"

"I wasn't happy."

"But…"

"I pretended to be, but I wasn't. I thought that if maybe I could be more cheerful – more pleasant to be around – that people would like me more. It sort of backfired though, I guess."

"You mean that all that was a lie? You acted like a moron just so that people would like you?"

Naruto shook his head. "Not at first. When I was little it was actually fun. Acting like a fool was an easy way to get out of the things I didn't want to do. It helped me cover up all of my failings. Pretty soon, no one had any real expectations of me aside from being a nuisance, I guess. It was better than the alternative though." If he'd actually succeeded, then maybe things would have been even worse. No one had wanted him to succeed, after all.

"Then why are you acting like this now, all of a sudden?"

He shrugged. "I just stopped caring what everyone thought of me. My life hasn't been great so far, despite all my trying, so I think I'll just do whatever I feel like from now on. Even after all that work, I never even earned a single real friend. Now I have Ino, I guess, but I only see her a few times a week what with missions and all, and that's if I'm lucky. My life's a real mess."

Sakura sat and took it all in. She was shocked, to be sure. How could the loud, annoying idiot that had followed her around like a lost puppy have been so unhappy? Did she really know anything about her teammate at all? Did she know anything about either of them for that matter? "So all that chasing me around and asking me on dates? That was all a lie?"

Naruto gave her a small smile. "Not all of it was fake. I mostly chose you because you were the smartest girl in our class, plenty popular, and even a bit cute, I suppose. I figured that I could get myself a bit of attention if I hung around you – even if it was only the bad kind."

Sakura gave a faint blush at his compliments, though it was barely visible in the moonlight. "That's nice of you to say, but I don't really think of myself as anyone special. Book smarts were about the only thing I could really stand out in at the academy since there were so many kids from ninja clans in our class. It's not as if someone from a civilian family like me could get top marks in weapons or taijutsu. When those two missing ninja attacked, I didn't know what to do. I froze up. I mean, did you see Sasuke? He was amazing!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, though Sakura couldn't see it.

"And even you were quick enough to throw some kunai to slow them down."

"That was instinct, more than anything. If I had been as close as you were, I might have frozen up as well."

Sakura nodded. "But then when we fought Zabuza, you saved sensei with Sasuke's fire technique. It was pretty amazing, actually." The pink haired girl's eyes went out of focus, as if she were looking at something that Naruto couldn't see. "I thought we were done for."

Naruto gave a light chuckle. "Yeah, I'll bet everyone's happy that Sasuke taught me that jutsu now. See? That's why we should be helping each other out, but the bastard still won't talk to me other than to throw insults. It's like he doesn't want our help. I just don't understand him."

Sakura's mouth drew itself into a thin line at Naruto's mention of Sasuke. "I wish you wouldn't call him that. He's just…"

"He's an elitist prick, Sakura. He doesn't care about anyone but himself. Did you see the look on his face the other day when you made it up the tree before him?"

Sakura gave Naruto a look that bled anticipation and hope. "He resented you for it, Sakura. He doesn't want to be shown up by anyone, even his teammates. Maybe he's just so used to being the best that he can't stand the idea of someone coming close to him."

"Sasuke is complicated, Naruto. I wouldn't expect you to understand. And he's just so cool."

"You mean cold, Sakura. You heard him – the guy doesn't like a single thing except planning murder. I just don't think you really know a thing about him. You and everyone else might get off on his looks and whatnot, but you don't really know him as a person, and I don't think you'd want to."

The pink haired girl gave Naruto a scathing look. "And you do know him? Who are you to talk?"

The boy shook his head. "No, I don't know him. And frankly, I don't think I want to. If I have to waste half the time and energy I wasted trying to get your attention, or you've wasted trying to get his, then his friendship isn't worth it."

Sakura sighed. "I just wish we all could get along better. We must have the worst teamwork of any squad in Konoha."

She had a point. "Look, I'll do my best to get along, but if he wants to work with me he's going to have to put some effort into it too." He paused for a moment and listened to the waves break below them before continuing quietly. "Maybe we should all just start over."

"Maybe you're right."

* * *

Kakashi had said to leave the faux hunter nin to Sasuke, so Naruto had. Looking on, he couldn't help but be impressed at Sasuke's skill. The Uchiha had only finished mastering the tree climbing exercise the previous afternoon, and already he could use the skills he'd learned to fight at incredible speed and power – an ability that it had taken Naruto nearly the entire week to get used to.

No wonder they called Sasuke a genius.

"Watch out!" Sakura was clutching a kunai close to her chest as she worriedly watched Sasuke and the other ninja fly across the concrete construction at the edge of Zabuza's mist cloud.

The first memorable event of the encounter occurred when Naruto witnessed the small hunter ninja use one hand to form seals and summon a jutsu unlike any other that Naruto had yet seen.

Naruto could hardly believe his eyes – which he now kept active at almost all times when a ninjutsu might be used nearby – when the small Kiri ninja's arctic blue aura took on the flowing aspect of water and a quickly swirling, shifting aspect that he could only assume was wind.

It had never occurred to Naruto that using two elements at once was even possible.

Sasuke managed to jump out of the way of the rain of ice needles at incredible speed – which Naruto somewhat sourly realized was an unrefined version of the Body Flicker jutsu he had been toiling over for the last few days. The Uchiha had just come up with that trick on the fly, too.

But Naruto learned something new. Apparently when two elements were mixed, they formed a new element instead of manifesting individually. He'd never heard of that before.

The mist was slowly spreading, which worried Naruto even more. He couldn't see shit in this mess, and would soon lose track of Sasuke as well as Kakashi. Sakura was glancing around nervously next to him, while Tazuna did the same from behind the two young ninja.

The mist, Naruto found, was inundated with Zabuza's murky blue energy, which only succeeded in blocking the blonde's eyesight even further.

The hunter nin finally tired of being thwarted by Sasuke at every turn, so he flashed through yet another set of seals that Naruto couldn't make out from his distance. Again, the flows and gusts of water and wind whipped around the small figure before tall, thin sheets of ice rose from the wet surface of the bridge to form a dome around Sasuke.

Now that couldn't be good.

And now the mist was beginning to cover even Sakura and Naruto's position at the side of the enormous bridge.

He was tired of sitting still, and unlike Sakura – who was tasked with protecting Tazuna – and Sasuke – who's job it was to defeat the hunter ninja – Naruto wasn't under any explicit orders.

So he decided to go find Sasuke.

"Stay here and take care of the drunk, Sakura. I'll go give Sasuke a hand." He could tell by her face that she was torn between being left alone to guard their client and letting Naruto go check on her crush. He was right though, and she knew it as well as he.

Sasuke needed some help.

"Be careful."

Naruto gave a warm smile that lifted her spirits even through the oppressive mist and dire circumstances. "No worries. I'm sure Sasuke has that guy on the ropes by now."

Then he was gone.

* * *

Sasuke was having problems.

The ice-wielding ninja had trapped him within a massive prison of frozen mirrors, and did not seem keen on letting him leave. To top it all off, the hunter nin was able to use his mirrors to move at incredibly speed across the space, peppering the Uchiha with stinging senbon needles at every opportunity.

It was a bit humiliating.

His Grand Fireball technique had had no effect on the ice mirrors, and Sasuke had to berate himself when a small part of his mind wondered if Naruto's would have fared any better.

No. Definitely not.

He was in trouble, but he was surviving. He was starting to see the missing ninja's attack patterns and movements. The boy must have been running low on chakra if he was slowing down like that.

It was a waiting game, then.

The scrapes and cuts hurt, but he could still function after pulling the needles out as gently and swiftly as possible. Being stabbed so many times was beginning to make him light-headed, but he fought that feeling down – he was an Uchiha elite for God's sake, what were a few senbon to him?

He could see the attacks clearly by now, which meant that his opponent was in some serious trouble. But he was also tiring. He couldn't take much more of this, and though he could see the attacks coming now, he couldn't always dodge them completely.

He was able to defend his vital points, however, and that was what mattered.

Sasuke was seeking a new strategy – a way to draw the hunter nin to him so that he could finish him off – when he found himself faced with yet another problem.

That being that the ground had just fallen out from underneath him.

* * *

"You look like a bloody pincushion, Sasuke. What did you let him do to you?"

"What the hell, moron! I had him right where I wanted him."

"Sure, sure. You look like you're about ready to pass out. Now come on."

Naruto dragged Sasuke down the tunnel he had made in the concrete bridge. It had been difficult, but he had managed the Subterranean Voyage technique two days ago. The trick had been in figuring out that he had to will the earth to change density before he tried to move it aside with his chakra. It was more difficult in the solid concrete of the bridge – especially since he had to bend and move the rebar supports as well – but he had managed it.

"So do you have an actual plan, or are you just doing something stupid again?"

"Stupid? Are you saying that you wanted to stay in that little funhouse of horrors? Because I can put you right back, you know." Naruto climbed out of his original hole just within sight of the edge of the dome – a distance of about ten feet through the thick fog.

Sasuke emerged right behind him, and pulled a few senbon from his forearms. Better they hit there than in his neck or chest. "I can't see anything out here."

Naruto nodded as he looked around. "You ain't kidding. This is a mess." He turned to look at Sasuke, but froze when he took in his face. "Hey, you've got some Sharingan going there, bastard."

The Uchiha blinked. "Really?" Upon seeing Naruto nod, his face twisted into what could only be described as a look of pure ecstasy. It was a little creepy on the boy's pale face. It only stayed for a moment, however, before slipping away as quickly as it had come. "Wait, this is bad."

It was Naruto's turn to look confused. "Uh, how's that?"

"I thought that the hunter nin was slowing down from chakra exhaustion, but really it was just me being able to pick up on his faster speed. It means that this guy is still dangerous."

"Damn." Naruto wracked his brain for anything that might work here. He was confident that he and Sasuke could win against the lone ninja if they could just _see_. "Wait. Let me try something."

The blonde had no idea if this would work, but it was his best shot. He concentrated on the image of Zabuza standing on the surface of the lake when they had first fought him after reaching Wave. Silently and with his eyes screwed shut in concentration, Naruto held his right hand in a seal in front of his chest while extending his left arm above his head, his index and middle fingers pointing skyward.

"What do you think you're doing, moron?"

Naruto opened one eye to glare at his partner, but shut it just as quickly. "I'm getting rid of this fucking mist. Now shut up while I work."

Normally, he'd never expect this to work. This jutsu only had two seals though, so maybe he could fudge it. He focused on the churning waters below the bridge – on the waves lapping against the shore beside Tazuna's home. Then he thought of the mist that surrounded him – the feel on his skin, the smell of it in his nose, how it hid his enemies from his sight.

How he wanted it to settle back down – to return to the ground as still pools of water.

Then he pushed his chakra into the air around him. He had to overpower Zabuza's chakra, so he had to be forceful. But he also needed control. Most of all, he had to believe it would work.

And it did.

Naruto could feel the mist receding from around him – could feel as the moisture soaked into his dark clothes. He opened his eyes and found that nearly the entire dome of ice was visible now, but Kakashi and Zabuza were still obscured. So he kept it up.

"Whatever you're doing, moron, it's working."

Naruto grinned at the rare praise. Then something bit his neck.

"Fuck."

The last things he remembered before hitting the ground and passing out were the experiences of four clones that he'd left at Tazuna's home to try to perfect the Body Flicker. They had knocked out and tied up two samurai who had tried to kidnap Tsunami.

Then his vision darkened into nothingness.

* * *

Naruto woke to find a tearful Sakura sitting over him.

"What happened?" His voice sounded a bit strange to his ears, but that could have been because Sakura had just pulled two senbon out of his throat.

"Oh my God! You're alive!"

He was honestly surprised when he felt himself wrapped in a warm embrace and a mop of pink hair pressed into his face. "I'm alright, Sakura. He just knocked me out."

"That's what you get for not paying attention, moron."

Naruto glared at the smirking Uchiha standing over him. "Yeah, thanks for looking out for me back there. Fucking asshole." Naruto sighed and slowly sat up. "So what happened?"

"The hunter nin saw Kakashi about to kill Zabuza after he knocked you out and used his ice mirror to jump in the way of Kakashi's technique. He's dead." Sasuke sounded rather dispassionate as he spoke of the young ninja's demise. "Zabuza's dead too, he killed that Gatou character and a whole bunch of mercenaries that showed up. Then Kakashi and I chased the rest off."

"Uh, how long was I out for?" He'd missed a lot of action.

"About ten minutes."

Yeah. Wow.

They'd been busy.

* * *

It took nearly a month to complete the bridge and repair all of the damage done to it in the battle, but by the time it was christened it seemed that everyone but Naruto was ready to return to Konoha.

Naruto found that he actually preferred the company of Tazuna and his family to that of the villagers back home, which in truth wasn't saying an awful lot for the man. At least he'd get to catch up with Ino and the rest of his classmates.

Kakashi had drilled them hard daily in an attempt to get their skills up, and Naruto and Sasuke at least were seeing some real improvement. It was hard for Sakura though. Despite graduating the academy with excellent grades, she lagged far behind her teammates in ninja abilities. Much of her time was spent building her stamina by doing drills while Naruto and Sasuke sparred.

Things were tense between the two. Naruto just didn't have the inclination to try to break though Sasuke's prickly demeanor. The most interaction the two boys got was in beating the hell out of each other in "training" matches – which usually ended with Sasuke as the victor. Naruto told himself that it was thanks to the Uchiha's Sharingan, but deep down knew that Sasuke was probably the better fighter – bloodline or no.

Nerves were certainly beginning to fray by the time Konoha's massive gates came back into view.

* * *

Naruto was truly shocked when he caught a glimpse of the ethereal dome that surrounded the village of his youth. He had taken to randomly activating his eyes in case there was anything nearby to pick up on, but he had never expected to see something like this.

It made a lot more sense now as to why ninja didn't simply climb over the wall on their way to do missions outside of the city. The front gate was the only place that Naruto could see that the dome didn't cover.

The best part of it, though, was that Sasuke had been flicking his doujutsu on and off much like Naruto had the entire trip home. And he'd just turned his off after only a few seconds of glancing around.

The bastard's Sharingan couldn't see it.

How about that?


	5. Touch Of Grey

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Naruto, go figure.

**Posted: **4/23/09

**Chapter Title: **_Touch of Grey _by the Grateful Dead

* * *

Naruto grunted as his face hit the moist earth of the training field. The gristly taste in his mouth was the dirt he'd just eaten. The salty, metallic flavor was his blood. The sharp stabbing he felt in his cheek was a mystery. He placed his hands underneath his chest and rolled himself into a sitting position before digging around in his mouth for whatever it was that had poked him.

"Damn." Naruto pulled the offending object out of his mouth and gave it a disgusted look. The sight of his bloody molar elicited a gasp from Sakura, but only caused Naruto to sigh in annoyance as the pain in his gum came full force. It was odd how he hadn't noticed the throbbing ache there until he saw the misplaced tooth.

"Sasuke, I told you both no lasting injuries. This is a _spar_. What's the matter with you?" Kakashi rarely came off as anything other than apathetic, but today the three genin could detect a hint of anger in his voice.

The Uchiha folded his arms and looked his sensei in the eye without a hint of remorse. "It's not my fault that he's too weak to take it. I keep telling you that this is a waste of my time, Kakashi. He's never even beaten me once. I need a better sparring partner if I'm going to get stronger."

Naruto had pulled himself to his feet and was busy halfheartedly waving off Sakura's attempts to inspect the wound while he spat blood on the ground. Sasuke's comment didn't pass his notice, though.

"Fuck you, Sasuke. If it weren't for your Sharingan I'd beat your ass into the ground. Just because you can predict me doesn't suddenly make you above me. Frankly I'm tired of being your punching bag every day. You should be thanking me for putting up with your cheep shots, you ungrateful piece of…"

"Enough!" Kakashi's eye swept a glare back and forth between the two boys. "Four months now you've been at each others throats and I'm getting sick of it. You should be happy that your teammates are willing to help you train, but here you are acting like children."

"Then tell this bastard to stop taking cheap shots at me and at least be a bit thankful that I'm helping him train! You think any other person in this whole village would put up with the shit I do every day?" Naruto held his loose molar up to emphasize his point. "This is going to take me fucking weeks to re-grow!"

Kakashi blinked and looked at the bloody tooth, noticing it for the first time. "You should probably get to the hospital Naruto. They can stick that back in for you."

Sakura couldn't decide whether to be miffed or amused, and ended up sounding a bit hesitant. "Naruto, that won't grow back. Maybe you should listen to Kakashi-sensei and get it put back in while you still can?"

Naruto looked at her and blinked as his anger bled away, if only for a moment. "It'll grow back." He dropped the tooth on the ground.

"Naruto! You only grow two sets of teeth in your whole life! That's supposed to last until you die!" Sakura seemed on the verge of bending over to pick up the tooth herself but ended up thinking better of it and simply gave Naruto a disgusted look.

She had been acting much better since their talk on the mission to Wave – at least when it came to insulting him or dismissing him out of hand – but still had the annoying habit of talking down to him. The fact that he deserved it half of the time made it only slightly more tolerable.

Naruto shrugged. "I'm already on my third set of teeth, Sakura. Mine grow back."

Kakashi looked at him with interest. "Are you serious?"

The blond stared at his sensei for a moment, but the older man seemed to expect an answer. "I've been living on my own since I was six and entered the academy. Nobody really impressed the importance of good hygiene on me until the old man visited one time and saw that my teeth were rotting out. Turns out it didn't really matter."

"Huh."

Sakura frowned. "But that's…"

"A quirk of mine, yeah." Naruto wasn't entirely comfortable speaking about his oddities aloud, especially since only he and Kakashi were in on the Kyuubi secret.

Sasuke just sneered. His disposition hadn't improved at all since their time in Wave, and if anything the rift between he and Naruto had only widened as their rivalry grew. "So what's the problem then, idiot? You shouldn't have anything to complain about. You get a workout every day against me, while I have to pull punches against a useless nitwit like you."

Naruto's face twisted into a scowl, but before he could retort Kakashi spoke up. "Sasuke, stop. You both are improving through this sparring. Why can't you just see that you're _helping_ one another here?"

"How is fighting this weakling making me stronger, Kakashi?"

"Fight me without that Sharingan, Sasuke, and we'll see who's eating dirt! Better yet, let's do a fight with no restrictions. I'll crush your pale ass!"

"Oh, you want to show me some new ninjutsu, idiot? Let's see it then."

"You know damn well that you're useless at anything that isn't the fire element. I'd kill you and you know it."

Kakashi placed a gloved hand to his forehead – an action that he had been performing much too often for his liking as of late – and spoke once more in a raised voice. "And that's why we don't use ninjutsu when we spar, Naruto. Unfortunately I'm not sure that you wouldn't kill each other."

"The point is that I'm tired of this abuse! The bastard doesn't respect me or your sparring rules and I end up going home with the damn bruises every day."

"Like I said, it's a waste of my time fighting this idiot, Kakashi. Let him spar with Sakura and I'll spar with you."

Sakura's face fell at the Uchiha's last line, but Naruto and Sasuke were too busy glaring between one another and Kakashi to notice.

Kakashi sighed, but a moment later straightened with resolve. "You two don't want to spar together? Fine." The older man crossed his fingers and a moment later two perfect copies stood beside the original. "You can spar with me for the rest of the day, and we'll see how you feel about working together again tomorrow."

The hardness in the jounin's voice wasn't lost on the young teens, and Naruto wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut. No, he decided. Even if Kakashi was going to go to town on him he'd still have his pride. It wouldn't have been so bad if Sasuke didn't choose to demean him every day or sneak in painful and unnecessary strikes just to prove how good his aim could be with his damn doujutsu. The fact was that Naruto knew he was improving, and so was Sasuke. Still, it was a wound to his ego to never have won a single bout with his stuck up teammate even with such a disadvantage, and the unnecessary roughness and verbal abuse just made the situation all the more intolerable.

No, he'd made the right decision.

It didn't escape Naruto's notice that the real Kakashi pointed at him and began to lead him away through the trees to another training ground. The scowl on Sasuke's face showed that he hadn't missed it either, though in all honesty it could have been a completely random choice on Kakashi's part. Still, it made Naruto feel just a bit better about the whole ordeal.

Not a minute later Kakashi stopped and turned around and appraised Naruto. "Do you need a moment?"

Naruto blinked in confusion at the question until he remembered he'd just had a tooth knocked out. His gums had stopped bleeding without his notice some time ago. "No, I'm good."

"You know what's going to happen now?"

"You're going to make a point?"

Kakashi nodded.

"I just want you to know that I'm not sorry for what I said back there. I have an ego too, and even if my body can take the abuse I can't just sit back and let him belittle me every day."

The older man closed his eye for a moment and gave a faint nod. "I know you can take it, and you're improving quite a bit – more than you probably realize. Even if this training is a bit unpleasant, it'll be worth it in the long run. I just wish you two would start acting like a team. If we get into a mess again like we did back in Wave I'm not sure how we'll be able to pull through it as we are."

"He needs to get off of his Uchiha throne if he wants to be a teammate of mine." The blond shook his head. "What a miserable clan that must have been."

"They didn't all act like that." Kakashi's eye wandered for a moment before coming to rest on Naruto once again and closing in what the blond had come to know as his happy expression. "Well, you said you wanted a go with ninjutsu, so how about it?"

Naruto smiled and gave an enthusiastic nod. Even if he was going to be beaten black and blue, he could still have a good time of it.

* * *

"Hey guys!" Naruto half jogged, half limped towards the small group of ninja.

"Naruto! Don't be so loud, we're practicing!"

Naruto slowed as he drew closer. "Really? You look like you're all sitting around to me." He glanced at the four ninja one by one as they rested on a fallen tree trunk. "But I don't want to interrupt anything if you're busy." With that he looked to the oldest member of the group, who was lazily puffing smoke from his cigarette.

"It's alright Naruto, we're done for the day." The bearded man looked the blond boy up and down. "What happened to you?"

"Ugh! Naruto, you're a mess. What is that?" Ino stood up and wasted no time in brushing the clumps of drying mud from Naruto's black and silver gi.

"Knock it off, Ino. It's just some mud." He looked down at himself for the first time since leaving the training ground. "And some blood."

The blonde girl quickly removed her hands and backed away.

"What's Kakashi been having you do, then?" Asuma removed the cigarette from his mouth and proceeded to grind it under his sandal. He seemed genuinely curious.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. He didn't want to sound like a sissy who'd just gotten the tar beaten out of him. "We've been doing some tough training lately. Mostly ninjutsu with Kakashi and sparring with Sasuke."

"Oh, I heard that Sasuke awakened his Sharingan. I'll bet he kicks your ass, am I right?"

The whiskered boy didn't really appreciate Ino's gleeful expression. "Oh yeah, I wake up every morning looking forward to that jackass kicking my teeth out."

The platinum blonde blinked. "He really knocked out your teeth?"

"One." Naruto tugged back the corner of his mouth to reveal the empty space in his gums.

"Troublesome."

Naruto looked at dark haired boy and nodded. "Well yeah, and now I have blood all over my clothes." He used his fingernails to scratch at a crusty spot in futility. "It's ruining my look."

Ino snorted. "What look? You managed to screw up something as simple as dressing yourself. Silver and orange? What the hell, Naruto? Are you colorblind or something?"

The whiskered boy puffed up in indignation. "I'll have you know that my eyesight is perfectly fine, Ino. How else would I have found you guys out here, huh? You don't need to keep telling me my clothes don't match every time we meet."

"But that orange is hideous! Getting rid of it was the whole point of getting new clothes!"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. "You saw us? Through the trees?" He gave a quick glance around of his own. "They're pretty dense here."

Naruto turned away from Ino and froze for a moment. "Well that and I heard you, ya know?" The truth was that if he focused enough chakra to his eyes these days he actually could make out heavy concentrations of chakra, like those found in ninja, through solid objects. To an extent, anyways.

The dark haired boy grunted.

"Well what sorts of things has Kakashi been teaching you, Naruto?" Chouji had finally put aside the bag of chips that he had been working through.

"Oh, a bit of this and that." Naruto gave the large boy a playful grin.

"Well, maybe we should increase our training schedule if this is what one of Kakashi's students looks like at the end of the day." The blond boy couldn't tell if Asuma was kidding or not, but the look of horror on the other genin's faces was amusing none the less.

Naruto frowned. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you old folks knew something we didn't. What's going on?"

The bearded jounin simply raised an eyebrow. "And why would this old man want to tell you anything, hmm?"

Shikamaru sighed. "The Chuunin Exam starts next week. It was obvious, wasn't it?"

"Not to someone who's never heard of the Chuunin Exam before, it's not." Naruto hated being so ill informed about things like this. It wasn't really a surprise that out of nine genin that graduated in their year, seven were from prestigious ninja clans. Sakura had the drive to go out of her way to read up on this sort of thing, but it was no wonder that Naruto had seemed such a dunce in and out of the academy. His peers had been learning about being ninja since before they could walk.

"How did you think ninja got promoted?"

"I never really thought that far ahead." Seeing that Ino was about to speak, Naruto continued on. "After all, they were just going to make me the Hokage and be done with it, right?"

The kunoichi's mouth closed before tugging into a small smile. "Sure they were."

Naruto plopped down on the log between Ino and Chouji before speaking again. "So what have you guys been doing out here to get ready?"

Chouji twisted a bit to face the blond boy, ignoring the unopened bag of chips that he had just pulled out of his pack. "Well, Asuma-sensei's been helping us with our clan techniques and battle formations."

Naruto was always one for seeing new techniques, even though he'd become a bit more reluctant to simply start using the jutsu he'd seen from others. It didn't make much sense to him, but after the blowup over Sasuke's Grand Fireball he'd come to realize that "stealing" techniques rubbed some people the wrong way. He actually liked Team Ten, too. A look-but-don't-touch attitude seemed appropriate here. "Oh yeah? What sort of techniques do you use?"

The Akimichi jumped from his seat, jumped forward a few paces, and turned, clearly excited that someone had asked him for a demonstration. "Take a look!"

Asuma sighed. "Chouji, you shouldn't simply show your techniques to anyone asking to see them. There's such a thing as the element of surprise, you know."

Naruto leaned forward to look around Ino at her teacher. "Worried I'm going to sell his secrets to the enemy, Asuma?"

The bearded jounin pulled a pack of cigarettes out of one of his vest pockets and began fiddling with it absentmindedly. "More worried that you'll _be_ the enemy."

The jinchuuriki's eyes narrowed behind his glasses. He didn't expect that from Asuma – a man he'd known since he could walk. Anger bled into his voice. "And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"He meant in the exam, Naruto."

Naruto's head spun around to face Shikamaru, who was looking at him curiously. The blond boy blinked as the anger bled away. He shook his head slightly to clear it and used the motion to peek at Ino and Asuma out of the corner of his eye.

Both were studying him as well – Ino with a small frown and Asuma with one eyebrow quirked in question.

"Oh, the exam. Right, sorry. I… well, never mind. Sorry." He felt like an idiot. Now that he wasn't ignoring them, the glares of the villagers were starting to get to him – wearing him down. He just couldn't bring himself to be completely indifferent to them, no matter how hard he tried. Something in him craved the approval that he could only get from others, and the disgusted looks he received daily weighed on him despite his best efforts to block them out.

"Come on sensei! All this practicing and I can't even show off? It's not like he won't figure it out when he sees it anyways." Chouji seemed to be the only one who hadn't picked up on the earlier tension.

Asuma removed a cigarette from the package in his hands and sighed. "Go ahead then."

The heavy boy grinned and moved his hands together in a short string of seals. "Multi-Size technique!"

Naruto just stared. And stared. Then he blinked a few times. Then stared some more. "Um, did it work?" He'd been watching closely with the help of his doujutsu eyes, but the chakra flare that raced through Chouji hadn't had the tell tale characteristics of an elemental jutsu. Instead it had just seemed to thicken and dim before the jutsu took effect.

And if the look of the chakra was strange, then the effect of the jutsu was downright bizarre.

"What do you mean? It worked fine!" Chouji looked down at the four ninja in front of him in slight confusion, his eyes drifting from a confounded Naruto to a giggling Ino, who had apparently found the blond boy's question incredibly amusing.

Naruto had to work to stop himself from speaking his mind. Inflating oneself to massive proportions didn't seem like a particularly effective technique. Plus it looked ridiculous. "So… what does it do, exactly?"

"Huh? Makes you big, obviously."

Shock wearing down, Naruto had to keep himself from laughing. Instead of cracking up, he yelped as Ino reached over and pinched his arm, hard. He made sure to send her a nasty look before turning back to Chouji. Actually, he should probably thank her later. "What do you do now, I meant."

"Oh! Check this out." The massive ball of a boy pulled his visible extremities into his body, reminding Naruto of a horribly obese turtle, and took off rolling about the clearing they were resting in, changing direction and spinning in place from time to time.

Naruto leaned over towards Ino, who in turned moved in to catch his whisper. "I think I've finally found a jutsu that I don't ever want to learn."

The kunoichi gave a mischievous smirk. "That just makes me want to learn it more. Watch this."

The blond boy was sure he that hadn't heard that right.

"My turn, Chouji!" Ino hopped up from her place next to Naruto and moved into the clearing as the rolling Meat Tank came to a stop and shrank back to manageable proportions, revealing a winded Chouji sitting on the ground catching his breath.

Asuma looked up from lighting his cigarette. "Don't overdo it, guys. We did just finish up, after all."

Ino brushed aside his comment as she settled into a strange stance, her fingers forming a rectangle in front of her and pointed straight towards Naruto. "Here's my technique, Naruto. Get ready."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. "Hang on. What's it do, exactly?"

The kunoichi just grinned. "You'll see."

"Hold it, Ino." Asuma was leaning forward, elbows on his knees and smoking cigarette in hand as he stared apprehensively between the two blonds. "Why don't you try it on Shikamaru."

The lazy boy straightened abruptly. "What? Why, sensei?"

"You're used to it by now, and we don't want Ino getting hurt from playing with an injured body, now do we?"

Naruto frowned in confusion. Beside the fact that his bruises and scrapes had already faded, it seemed to him that Asuma was being uncharacteristically evasive. Then again, he didn't know what Ino's jutsu did, so given his special circumstances the man may have had a good reason to have her change targets.

Naruto wasn't going to complain. He spent enough time being a target dummy on a daily basis without having to be one for a second team.

Shikamaru sighed. "Fine, just don't do anything embarrassing. Or stupid."

Ino waved him off. "Yeah, yeah. Nothing too bad, got it." Her fingers were back in the rectangular shape before her and Chouji, Naruto now noticed, was at her side. "Ready Chouji?"

"Yep."

"Then here we go." Ino closed her eyes in concentration, and as Naruto watched, her light purple chakra sped up, the flow increasing dramatically around her body.

Like Chouji's aura, Ino's was different to anything he'd ever seen before. It didn't take on an elemental attribute, and the movement was nothing short of intense. It was interesting to say the least.

Not a moment later the bright mass of Ino's chakra leapt from her body and sped toward the seated form of Shikamaru.

Naruto couldn't help but gasp slightly, earning another strange look from Asuma. How was that even possible? The blond boy watched the violet mass of chakra impact Shikamaru and settle into his body, almost completely masking the deep, forest green that normally resided there. Swinging his head back around, Naruto examined the limp form of Ino, which Chouji had lowered into a seated position on the ground. There was still a hint of the light purple traveling through her body and gathered in the major organs. The greatest mass of all was in Ino's head, and Naruto struggled to understand what that could mean.

Without warning, Naruto was treated to the weight of Shikamaru dropping into his lap. The dark haired boy turned halfway around and wrapped his arms around the stunned blond's neck, receiving only a panicky look in return.

"What the hell?" As the shock wore off, Naruto was reminded that Ino's violet chakra had taken up residence in the boy's body. "Ino?"

Shikamaru smirked, then winked.

"Get off!"

The Nara fell to the ground with a loud thump and growled as he picked himself up. "Dammit Ino! I said nothing embarrassing or stupid!" He glared at Naruto. "That hurt, dammit."

Naruto was busy brushing off his pants and shoulders where Shikamaru had touched him. "Gross. So gross. It's a good thing this needed a wash anyways."

Neither boy was particularly pleased at the sound of Ino's raucous laughter or Chouji's snickering.

Ino wiped a tear from her eye. "But you two are so cute together."

Shikamaru got up and stalked to the far end of the log while Naruto slid down to the opposite side. They needed some space.

"Too damn troublesome."

"See, that's why it's funny, Shikamaru. You need to work on your sense of humor." Ino was still having trouble catching her breath.

"So anyways…" As funny as it may have been, Naruto had questions that needed answering. "How did you do those jutsu? They're not elemental, right? The only techniques I know that are like that are the academy jutsu."

Ino sat back down next to Naruto and turned to face him. "They're yin/yang jutsu."

Naruto deflated. "Can we pretend I don't know what that means?"

The kunoichi scowled. "Dammit Naruto! Didn't you listen to _anything_ that Iruka-sensei taught us?"

"Relax, Ino. It's not like he went into any detail." Shikamaru seemed to have gotten over his frustration and was back to his usual, mostly indifferent self.

"Were you even awake for it?"

Shikamaru sighed. "If Naruto really wants me to explain it to him I will. Having him hound us would be troublesome."

"Glad we're in agreement, Shikamaru. Just keep it simple, yeah?" Naruto gave an encouraging grin and leaned forward to look around Ino once again.

"Right. So you know that chakra is made up of two parts, spiritual energy and physical energy, right?"

Naruto frowned and put a hand to his chin in thought.

"Troublesome."

"I'm kidding, Shikamaru. I know. Keep going."

The Nara sighed. "Okay, so normally when you mold chakra these two components come together in a perfect balance. That way the chakra will remain stable and be easy to use. All of the stuff we learned in the academy relies on this balanced chakra, and that's because it's the easiest and most natural to mold. That's the yin/yang. It's the balance of the components of your chakra. Got it?"

"Sure."

"You know some elemental jutsu, right?"

Naruto gave a small smile. "A few."

Shikamaru shook his head. "Okay, well those use balanced chakra too. The only difference is that you have to assign an elemental aspect to the chakra while you mold it."

"Got it."

"Hurry up Shikamaru, I want to go home." Chouji was already through half of his next bag of chips.

"You don't have to stay, Chouji. Asuma left ten minutes ago."

Naruto turned around to find Asuma's seat vacant. Huh.

"I thought we were going cloud watching?"

Ino crossed her arms. "Get on with it then."

Shikamaru mumbled something that may or may not have been "troublesome" and continued. "What the three of us do is manipulate that balanced chakra into something unbalanced, okay?"

Naruto frowned. "Be a bit more specific."

"Okay. You remember Chouji's jutsu?"

Naruto nodded.

"His clan's techniques all lean towards physical energy. They all manipulate his body's size, so he needs to have a body that can handle the strain and that can store plenty of physical energy. It's why he's eating all the time."

Chouji have a happy nod as he munched on another potato chip.

"Ino's family focuses on jutsu that affect the mind, so she has to force her chakra to contain more spiritual energy so that she can wrestle control of a person's body away from them."

Bingo. That's what Naruto had seen when Ino had used her technique. It had seemed so overwhelming to his sight because it had been spiritually charged chakra. So it seemed that his eyes could see the spiritual power of chakra, rather than spiritual energy itself. It certainly made sense to him. His eye could determine both the amount and the aspect of spiritual chakra, or so it seemed.

"Hey Shikamaru, what is spiritual energy, exactly?"

Ino didn't give him time to respond. "It's the energy of the mind and soul that accumulates based on the wisdom and knowledge of a ninja."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Pretty much what she said."

That wasn't much of an answer, in Naruto's opinion. "What do you mean mind and soul? What the hell is a soul, anyways?"

Ino scoffed. "You don't know?"

"Well I know what it's supposed to be, but have you ever seen one? How do you know that your spiritual energy is based on it? How do you know that knowledge and experience increase spiritual energy?"

The others were looking at Naruto oddly by this point.

"Look. If your spiritual energy got bigger the smarter and wiser you got, then wouldn't that mean that the people with the most spiritual energy be the ones who lived the longest? If that's true, then why are most of the ninja in the village young?" Naruto's confusion came through in his tone. He wanted some answers as to what his unique vision meant.

Shikamaru spoke first. "I'm not really sure, Naruto. I mean you make a good point. Why can kids as young as five and six, or younger, be taught to use their chakra if their spiritual energy is incredibly tiny?" He shook his head. "You'd be better off asking someone who knows a bit more than us."

Naruto growled in frustration. It just didn't make any sense. Ino had said pretty much the same thing as Sakura back in Wave, but that explanation was just too vague for him. It sounded like something that was simply made up to appease schoolchildren. "How did your clan come up with its techniques, Ino?"

Ino tugged on the bandage wrapped around her thigh absently. "I think it was trial and error, mostly. Once you get the hang of using spiritual energy, it becomes easier and I think we just went from there."

"But how do you sense it, to know it's there?"

The frown on Ino's face was disheartening. "What do you mean, sense it? It has to be there, doesn't it? It's part of chakra."

Naruto was becoming annoyed. "But how did ninja even find that out if there's no way to sense it?"

"Naruto."

The blond boy's head swung around to meet Shikamaru's gaze as the dark haired boy got to his feet.

"You should ask someone else. We don't know."

Naruto sighed. "Yeah, sure. You're right."

"Finally! Let's get out of here, Naruto. I need to go shopping, and you're going to make sure I look alright." Ino got up and dragged Naruto to his feet.

"Don't you mean you need someone to carry your bags?"

Ino shot him a scathing glance and continued dragging him off.

"Shouldn't I change first?"

"You're going to use a transformation anyways, aren't you?"

Naruto scowled, his last avenue of retreat cut off. "Damn."

* * *

Hatake Kakashi walked down a wide, curving corridor within the Hokage tower, exchanging nods of respect with the masked guards that resided within. When he finally came to the large double doors that led to the Hokage's office, he greeted the two men there with a small wave and smile. The masked guards gave him the typical nod of respect before one of them raised his arm slightly and pointed further down the hallway. Kakashi nodded in understanding and continued walking along the corridor as it bent its way around the circular tower.

He stopped at the next door – a nondescript wooden thing, like so many others in the tower – and gave a quick knock. The muffled response from within was his queue to enter, and he quickly slid inside.

The masked jounin found himself in a comfortable sitting room connected to the Hokage's office. The simple furnishings consisted of two facing couches with a small wooden coffee table placed in between. A few potted plants grew against the walls, and a large window opened out over the village below.

Kakashi's eye was drawn to the four portraits that decorated a wall, the blond mop of his teacher's hair catching his eye as it always did. It was only a minor comfort that he got to see that same unruly hair every day, though on another.

Sarutobi Hiruzen sat on one of the couches, his back to the portrait wall. The aging man poured two small cups of tea from an elegant set before looking up at the new arrival.

"Have a seat, Kakashi."

The masked jounin walked around the back of the worn couch and sat, allowing himself to relax a bit. It was one of the many things that he was thankful for in his leader. Underneath the legend and the title, Sarutobi was a caring man and a confidant for his subordinates. "Thank you, Lord Hokage."

"Tell me, Kakashi. Do you really think that your students are ready for the exam?" The old man held up a hand to calm the masked man's bristling. "I only ask because you've expressed concerns to me in the past, and Gai did make a valid point. I myself am a bit wary of so many green ninja being thrown into this test, but I respect your judgement."

Kakashi sighed. "To be honest, I couldn't be happier with their growth as ninja. Sasuke has been making good progress toward mastering his Sharingan and his skills are improving, especially with shuriken and wirework. His eyes no doubt have contributed to that."

Sarutobi threaded his fingers together in front of him and gave a small nod. It was to be expected, after all.

"He's also been learning some more fire techniques outside of our training from his clan's scrolls, but I think he's reluctant to show them in front of his teammates."

The Hokage gave a curious look and took a long sip of his tea before speaking. "And why would that be?"

Kakashi paused before answering. "I told you that Naruto learned the Grand Fireball technique simply by watching Sasuke perform it a few times, yes?" At the old man's nod, he continued. "I believe that Sasuke has become a bit paranoid about Naruto learning his techniques."

The Hokage set down his teacup and examined it for a moment in thought. "Do you believe that Naruto could learn these jutsu simply by watching Sasuke perform them?"

The jounin straightened. "That's just it, Lord Hokage. Naruto has surprised me in many ways – he's grown more than I could ever have imagined, even considering…" Kakashi's eye drifted to the Fourth Hokage's portrait once again.

Sarutobi didn't have to turn to know where the younger man was looking.

"I've taught Naruto a number of both water and earth techniques, and frankly I've never seen anyone pick up the jutsu as quickly as he has. The fact that he can use fire techniques as well is…"

"Unusual, to say the least."

Kakashi nodded. "Naruto has such a natural talent with ninjutsu that I think that Sasuke is developing a bit of an inferiority complex, despite having a number of his own advantages. Their taijutsu spars have become more and more brutal and – given Sasuke's advantage there – Naruto is the one on the receiving end of that brutality."

Sarutobi crossed his fingers in front of him once again in thought. "Their rivalry has gotten a bit out of hand, then. When I put them on the same team, I had hoped that Sasuke's talents would inspire Naruto to grow into his own powers that had been… neglected during his younger years. It seems my plan has backfired a bit, though, since Naruto has shown himself to be a spectacularly talented youngster in his own right." He shook his head slowly. "What of Sakura?"

"Hmm, when I first met her I was a bit concerned. She was rather brash and had an unhealthy infatuation with Sasuke, though I take it that was common among the kunoichi in her class."

Sarutobi gave a small smile, though Kakashi could see a hint of sadness in it. "They're still children in many ways, after all."

"True. Recently, she's calmed down quite a bit. I believe it came as a bit of a shock to her to find how far behind Sasuke and Naruto she was when it came to the practical aspects of the ninja arts. She's been throwing herself into her training, but still has a good ways to go before she catches up with them."

The Hokage took another sip of tea. "And how does she get along with her teammates?"

"Much better than before, especially with regards to Naruto, but Sasuke still seems content to brush her off. He's not particularly impressed with her skills, I imagine."

Sarutobi nodded. "I'm glad that I placed you in charge of this rather… unique team, Kakashi, but I suppose at the end of this we're brought back to my initial question. Why did you decide to enter them into the Chuunin Exam if their teamwork is so lacking?"

"Frankly, Lord Hokage, I don't know how to improve their teamwork as they are. The more Naruto and Sasuke practice together the more their animosity seems to grow. I'm worried that soon they'll be more inclined to fight one another than the enemy. Unless we could split them into different teams…"

The Hokage shook his head. "It's not possible right now. Maybe sometime in the future, but I'm not willing to break up my active squads just to cater to two green genin. I'm sure you understand."

Kakashi nodded. "As I thought. In that case, I've decided to enter them into the exam to force them to build some teamwork. Something drastic has to be done here, and soon, or else one of them is going to be seriously injured."

Sarutobi stared at his teacup in thought, letting the silence drag out. "Thank you for sharing this with me, Kakashi. I think that your method may very well be the only course of action we have open to us, and I can only hope that they can overcome their dislike of each other soon. They are both very promising young ninja, after all." The Hokage shifted slightly. "If not, then perhaps we'll have to make arrangements to split them up, though I am loathe to do so."

The conversation had come to an end, but Kakashi had one last topic that had been bouncing about in his head ever since his team had returned from Wave, its urgency growing every day. It seemed that now was the best time to address it. "One last thing, if I may, Lord Hokage."

The old man smiled indulgently. "Of course, Kakashi."

"Have you spoken to Naruto lately?"

The Hokage blinked. "I've spoken to him on a few occasions, though not as much as I'd have liked to, and certainly not under ideal conditions." Most of their meetings had been to reprimand the boy for altercations with villagers, sadly. "Why do you ask?"

Kakashi frowned, an expression that he hardly ever wore and one that Sarutobi found rather alarming on the casually upbeat jounin. "Do you ever get the feeling that Naruto isn't happy?"

Sarutobi felt his own frown begin to pull at his face. "What do you mean, Kakashi?"

The masked jounin sighed and rubbed the back of his head absently. "I know this may not be appropriate, Lord Hokage, but he seems so frustrated all of the time. He hides it well, but I can see it in him coming and going from practice. I know that he's made friends, but it just seems to me as though he's carrying a weight around that's slowly crushing him."

The Hokage's head lowered and his face darkened, his chin resting on his knuckles.

Kakashi sensed the dark mood. "I'm sorry for bringing this up to you, sir. It's not my place."

"No, Kakashi. I'm glad you spoke to me of this. Naruto doesn't have many advocates in Konoha and I'm truly happy that you've kept your eye on him. Ever since he was made a ninja I've felt the strain on our relationship growing. I don't think he looks to me the same way he once did, and I can't in my capacity treat him as I once did either." Sarutobi straightened and looked Kakashi in the eye. "In all honestly, I'm surprised that Naruto has held up as well as he has until now, given the attitude of the villagers, but ever since he learned of the reason for their dislike of him he's become less tolerant of their persecution. It's not something he can simply shrug off any longer."

"What can we do?"

Sarutobi shook his head. "I'm not sure that there is anything we can do, aside from hope that the villagers' opinions of Naruto change before the boy becomes too jaded. It was always my hope that Naruto would become a great ninja of this village and prove to the people here that he truly is the hero that his father wanted him to be, but in order for that to happen we need time – time which I'm not sure we have."

"And if time runs out? What will we do then?" Kakashi was beginning to become alarmed.

"I don't know, Kakashi. I'm hoping it won't come to a head anytime soon. The reality, though, is that Naruto is dangerous."

"Not to us!" The masked jounin was surprised to find himself on his feet. He hadn't meant to raise his voice.

The Hokage simply raised a hand to calm his subordinate. "Kakashi, Naruto is like a second grandson to me. The fact, though, is that he is a jinchuuriki and therefore _is_ dangerous. Not all of the fear and suspicion that the villagers view him with is unfounded, after all."

Kakashi slumped back into his seat and took a calming breath. "The Naruto I've come to know isn't one who would take out his anger on helpless villagers, no matter the circumstance."

"The Naruto we know is changing, Kakashi. Naruto as he is now isn't the same boy I enrolled in the ninja academy seven years ago, and he won't be the same eager student he is now. Fate has been cruel to him, and will continue to be. It's the path his father and this village set for him."

"How can we help him?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen gave a sad sigh. "I'm afraid, Kakashi, that Naruto must help himself."

* * *

"Thanks for meeting me, Iruka-sensei." Naruto greeted his old teacher and quickly ducked under the cloth flaps that separated the bustling roadway from his favorite ramen bar.

Iruka followed quickly behind Naruto and hopped up onto a stool next to the boy's. "You know you don't need to call me sensei any longer, right?"

"Force of habit, I guess."

The chuunin gave Naruto an appraising look. "Nice glasses, by the way."

Naruto grinned. "Like 'em? They were a present from Ino, actually."

"Oh? You and Ino, is it?"

The blond shook his head. "It's not like that. I'm just her pack mule for when she goes shopping."

"Just a pack mule, huh? No romantic dinners yet?"

Naruto scowled. "Well we do go out to eat and hang out from time to time."

Iruka grinned. "So there's some headway there, eh? It's always nice for a teacher to see his students getting along."

Naruto put his head on the counter. "I said it's not like that."

A teenaged girl walked out of the back and spotted them before quickly walking over to take their orders. "What'll it be, Naruto? Iruka-sensei?"

That brought a grin to the blond's face. "See? Even she calls you sensei and you never even taught her."

Iruka returned his grin. "Fair enough."

"Start me off with two bowls of miso, Ayame." Naruto looked to Iruka expectantly, but was met with a slight frown from the older man.

"Starting off with two? Remember that I'm only making a teacher's salary, Naruto."

Naruto gave another grin. "It's on me today, sensei. Don't worry about it."

Iruka's shock only showed for a moment, before he turned to Ayame. "Well in that case, I'll start off with three beef, a shrimp, a pork, and… oh, a miso of course."

The young waitress could barely suppress the giggle that threatened to escape her lips as both she and Iruka watched the look of dawning horror creep across Naruto's features.

"W-what?"

Iruka let a large smile spread across his face before slapping Naruto across the back – a little harder than necessary, Naruto thought – and turned back to Ayame. "Just one beef, please."

The young woman could barely get out her response through the bouts of laughter that shook her. "Sure."

Naruto's look of dumbfounded horror twisted into a scowl as realization came to him. "That wasn't funny."

"Oh come on, Naruto. You're not the only one who can enjoy a good joke from time to time."

The blond grumbled a bit. Now that he thought about it, it was pretty funny. "So how's the new class of delinquents? It must be like a vacation in there after me, right?"

Iruka chuckled quietly as he shook his head. "I don't know, Naruto. There are some brats in there that could give you a run for your money, I'll bet. I've got Sarutobi Konohamaru in my class this year."

Naruto groaned.

"So you do know him. He's mentioned you once or twice, you know."

"'Know him' is a bit of an overstatement. I've met him, tricked him, and run from him. That's about it." Naruto grinned as Ayame came back with their ramen and set it before them. "Thanks, Ayame."

"No problem. Enjoy!" The waitress retreated from the bar to let the two ninja eat in peace.

After a minute of far too loud slurping, Iruka turned to his former student. "You should be a bit more tolerant of Konohamaru, Naruto. After all, he reminds me a lot of you when you were that age."

Naruto snorted, causing ripples to spread across the bowl in front of him. "That's exactly why I'm not gonna be tolerant. I was an annoying little brat."

The chuunin looked at Naruto oddly before responding. "You've changed, you know?"

"Good."

Iruka eyed the bright orange rope tied around Naruto's waist. "Well, maybe not that much."

Naruto nodded and went back to eating. He was halfway through his second bowl when his conversation from a few days prior came back to him. "Iruka-sensei, what do you know about spiritual energy?"

Iruka put down his own chopsticks to look at Naruto. "Oh, finally interested in learning something useful now, are you?"

"Pretty much."

The chuunin nodded. "Okay. Well to start off, spiritual energy is the energy of the mind…"

"And soul, increased from wisdom and experience, blah, blah, blah. I know all that, but that doesn't really explain what it is, now does it?"

Iruka furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

"I mean where do ninja get the notion that it even exists if no one can see it or sense it? I know that you can't really use your chakra without accessing your spiritual energy, but doesn't that mean that ninja had to know about spiritual energy before they started using chakra? Is there some jutsu that lets you sense it?" Naruto paused in thought. "But even that wouldn't explain it since you couldn't use a jutsu without using chakra. Bah! It's too confusing!"

"I think I know what you're saying, Naruto, but frankly there is no good way to measure or detect spiritual energy. Molding chakra is something that we teach and pass down through the generations so that there can continue being ninja. That's probably the reason why what we teach about spiritual energy is so hard to apply to the jutsu we use. We really don't know much about it." Iruka shrugged in helplessness. "That's really all I, or anyone that I know of, for that matter, can tell you."

Naruto covered his face in his palms and gave a low growl of frustration. "Someone had to have figured it out. Otherwise ninja couldn't really be ninja. How did ninja learn that spiritual energy exists?"

Iruka blinked. "Oh, that's easy."

Naruto lowered his hands and turned to his old teacher, eager for an answer.

"The Sage of the Six Paths told them so."

* * *

Naruto scowled as a dumpy librarian rose from her position at the front desk and moved to intercept him. His scowl deepened as two adult civilians eyed the scene as they walked by unimpeded. One flashed them a deep frown while the other just glared.

Their expressions were genuine, but they weren't directed at Naruto.

The blond boy sighed and prepared himself for another round with his adoring public.

"What are you doing here?" The librarian had stopped a good eight feet from him and placed her hands on her hips.

Naruto supposed it was a method meant to make her look as bloated and imposing as possible.

"Looking for a book. What are you doing here?"

The large woman's eyes narrowed, her disdain growing by the second. "I work here, brat."

Naruto nodded. "Alright then." His attempt to walk around her and continue inside was blocked, however, by her considerable bulk.

"You're not allowed inside."

"Why the hell not?"

The woman huffed, which only seemed to inflate her further. "You're banned."

Naruto blinked. "Since when?"

"Since you glued the doors shut."

The blond had to think about that for a moment. "Wait a minute, that was three years ago." It had actually been one of his more pathetic pranks. After the library had closed for the night he'd used a tube of shower caulk to seal the doors. The next morning, the mostly civilian employees had had to stand outside for all of five minutes before a passing jounin had forced the doors open in under thirty seconds. It was sad, really.

"A ban is a ban."

Naruto scowled. "You can't possibly be telling me that I have a life-long ban because of something I did when I was ten! If you expect me to believe that you're going to have to prove it."

The librarian paused for a moment, which only succeeded in angering Naruto further. The bitch was obviously making this up.

"What do you want from the library, anyways?"

Naruto was losing his patience. He'd honestly tried his best not to antagonize anyone at the Hokage's behest, but that didn't stop him from blowing up and landing himself in the old man's office nearly once a week since he'd been back from Wave. Everyone had his limits, and Naruto was rapidly approaching his. "I already told you, I'm looking for a book."

"What kind of book?"

Naruto grit his teeth. "A history book, nothing sinister. Can I go now?"

The librarian only huffed again. "And what would _you_ want with a history book?" There wasn't any doubt in Naruto's mind at what she was implying.

It looked like he'd be paying the old man another visit this afternoon. He hoped he wouldn't be interrupting anything important. He stepped forward until he was only two feet from the large woman and watched in amusement as her eyes grew wider and wider at his approach.

Naruto grinned from ear to ear. "Well, since you were so polite to ask, I think I'll tell you. Being that I'm an _immortal_ demon and all, I tend to forget things from time to time." He did his best to sound particularly sinister. "No doubt your feeble human mind has experienced a similar occurrence?"

The woman began to sweat, gasp, and sputter. In Naruto's opinion it was quite amusing.

Then she screamed.

That was less amusing.

* * *

Not two minutes later the ANBU found Naruto sitting on the steps outside of the library waiting for them. The white-cloaked captain waved his three subordinates inside before sitting down next to the blond boy.

"Naruto, you can't keep doing this every week. What is wrong with you?"

Naruto turned to scowl at the cat-masked man. "Oh, gee, I don't know. Maybe it has to do with someone sealing a monster into me."

The ANBU sighed. "I'll be escorting you to the Hokage's office once my men interview the witnesses."

Naruto snorted. "What witnesses? There was only that fat cow getting in my way." He bent down and wrung his hands in his shaggy hair. "I can't even check out a fucking book in this place!"

"Calm down." The masked man stood up and put his hand on the boy's shoulder. "Come on. We can head to the tower now and they'll catch up to us."

Naruto simply nodded and followed the ANBU captain to the rooftops.

* * *

The Hokage sighed and ran his gnarled hands over his bald scalp. "You're a ninja now, Naruto. You can't just go around threatening civilians as you please and playing on their insecurities. You're a soldier of this village and I expect you to act like one."

Naruto couldn't meet the old man's eyes, even with his glasses between them. "Maybe that's the problem. Seems like we have this conversation every time I see you, old man. I'm a ninja of this village so I have to be better than every bigot here."

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes slightly, though he was sure that Naruto hadn't noticed. The situation seemed even worse for the boy than he had imagined. He could only hope that the Chuunin Exam would bring about some good for the boy. "I won't pretend to know what it's like for you, Naruto. I can only ask you to be a better person than those who mistreat you. In time, I'm sure that they can come to know the real you, if only you give them a chance."

"Why should I give them a chance?" Naruto shook his head in frustration. "I'm tired of this."

"I know, Naruto. But it will get better, I promise." Sarutobi adopted a thoughtful expression before proceeding. "I'm sure you've heard by now that we're hosting the Chuunin Exam here, yes?"

Naruto nodded. "It starts next week, right?"

"Correct."

"I'm not sure if I want to take part."

Sarutobi was well and truly shocked. "What do you mean, Naruto? This is your chance to prove to the villagers just who you are. A great Konoha ninja!" The Hokage brought himself back under control. "I have it on good authority from Kakashi that you and your team are perfectly capable of performing well in this exam."

Naruto looked up and met the Hokage's eyes for the first time since entering the office. "How do they grade it?"

"What do you mean, Naruto?"

"How do they decide who passes and who fails? Does everyone who passes get promoted?"

Sarutobi's brows knit together in thought. "Normally I wouldn't reveal this to you until you were preparing for the final portion of the exam, but I suppose I can tell you that a panel of judges made up of powerful ninja decides who has shown the qualities necessary in a chuunin and therefore who gets promoted. Why do you ask?"

Naruto gave a sad smile. "How many of those judges will be from Konoha, old man?"

"Naruto, I hope you're not thinking that they would vote against your promotion simply out of spite?"

"Why do the people in Konoha do any of the things they do to me?"

The Hokage's face fell. "Have a little faith, Naruto. The judges are all ninja, they'll understand."

Naruto's mouth pressed into a thin line. "Please don't pretend that there aren't ninja here who resent me for what I represent to them. I see it every day. They can't stand to look at me."

Sarutobi was at a loss. He knew that it was true, after all. If Naruto didn't participate though, his window of opportunity to turn his life around in Konoha may close forever. He couldn't let that happen to his good friend's boy.

"Naruto, listen to me."

The blond boy stayed quiet and watched the old Hokage carefully pick his words.

"This exam can only be taken in teams of three. If you don't enter then Sasuke and Sakura will be held back along with you."

Naruto shook his head. "I can't even work with Sasuke, what makes you think…"

"I'll only ask this of you once, Naruto. Kakashi has told me that the three of you are ready. If you participate here I promise I'll do what I can to make changes in your squad, but if the three of you are held back, I'm not sure I can help you." He was manipulating the boy, but what else could he do? Let his loneliness and frustration fester into something much worse? "Enter the exam with your teammates, Naruto. Do it for them, for Kakashi, but most of all, do it for yourself. I know you have it in you to become a great and respected ninja, even here in Konoha. You just can't give up yet."

Naruto nodded slowly. "Alright. Just this once, I'll enter. For Sakura and Kakashi-sensei, at least."

Sarutobi smiled, the panic he had felt earlier dimming. "Thank you, Naruto. I promise you won't regret this decision."

* * *

Naruto fumbled with his keys as he locked the door to his apartment. The day's emotional roller coaster had worn him out, and he was ready to turn in early for the night.

He was brought out of his musings by the realization that the lights in his apartment were on. He was sure that he had turned them off before he had left for practice that morning. The sound of rustling paper from the living room reminded him that his clones had been tasked with finding information on the elusive Sage of the Six Paths in the library on the off chance that he was denied entrance.

That had been quick thinking on his part.

Naruto followed the sound of paper into the living room to find one of his clones poring over a large, worn book. It certainly looked like it contained some history, in Naruto's opinion.

The clone looked up as Naruto entered the room and gave out a relieved sigh.

"Well? Did you get it?"

The clone only nodded.

"And?"

"You're not going to like it."

Naruto snorted. "After the day I've had, I doubt I'd like anything you found."

The clone quirked an eyebrow. "I mean you're really not going to like it."

Naruto frowned. "Fine. Lay it on me."

The clone disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Naruto blinked, then walked to the window. The sun was only a sliver of light over the western hills bleeding red across the village. It suited his mood just perfectly.

"God? I hate you."


End file.
